The future of meat – storytelling and dialogues for improved decision making

Meat production and consumption are entangled in many socio-economic and environmental issues including climate change, biodiversity, health, animal welfare, cultural values, and livelihoods. It is therefore not surprising that debates about how much meat we should eat, and how future livestock production should develop, are becoming increasingly intense and polarised. Due to differing worldviews, perspectives, interpretations of the evidence, and stakeholder interests, it is difficult to move these contested debates beyond an ideological deadlock. There is an urgent need for clear evidence-based communication on this topic.

The project aim is to reduce the state of polarisation around livestock production by communicating the evidence, engaging different perspectives through moderated dialogues and discussing the possibilities for four contrasting future scenarios: 1) A plant-based future; 2) Less but better meat; 3) Alternative meat; and 4) Intensive animal production.

Target groups for the project are primarily formal and informal decision-makers who can influence the future direction of the food system. They require both scientific-based information on the subject and an understanding of why interpretations of the evidence may differ. The target groups include politicians and policymakers, various decision-makers in the food trade and industry (e.g., sustainability managers, environmental strategists), and also chefs and interested consumers.

We will produce a series of podcasts through storytelling and dialogues where we discuss the evidence and sort out the values that support contrasting livestock futures. Food systems experts, agricultural researchers, animal scientists, economists, dietitians, behavioural scientists, and ecologists will be in conversation with actors in the food industry, trade and interest groups that impact future developments.

The podcast will be complemented by a digital dialogue platform to create the conditions for dynamic communication and continued conversations. At the end of the project, a short summary report will be published that highlights the most important evidence and value-based arguments that support and contradict the different future scenarios, as well as areas where they overlap. The report will then be disseminated to the target groups to increase the quality and legitimacy of decision-making for a sustainable food system, reduce the polarisation in the debate, and build bridges between science and society.

More about the project

For more information, please visit the project website: https://tabledebates.org/meat

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Workshop at Uppsala Health Summit

Uppsala Health Summit 22-23 October 2022 "Healthy Lives from Sustainable Food Systems" was organised in collaboration between Uppsala University and SLU. For two days, 200 food- and health experts from government, academia, industry, and civil society from 30 countries across five continents engaged in science-to-policy dialogues to discuss necessary actions for the transformation of our food systems to promote our and the planet’s health.

SLU Future Food and TABLE organised a workshop on the Future of Meat. The workshop and its conclusions are summarised in a report and policy brief:

Workshop brief: A Global Health Perspective on the Future of Meat (pdf)