A multi-billion dollar coalition in defense of sustainable nutrition
Who is behind the Fairr coalition that wants to reform food system subsidies in favor of more sustainable foods (like cultured meat)? Facts, names and numbers
A coalition of approximately 370 large international investors who together manage 71 trillion dollars in assets. It is the Fairr group, which urged the G20 leaders to reform subsidies to the food system to achieve the climate and nature objectives that the richest countries have set themselves by the end of the decade with the Paris climate agreement and the treaty on biodiversity of the United Nations.
SOME NAMES
Among the names that make up the Fairr coalition stand out among others Blackrock, Rockefeller asset management, JP Morgan Wealth management and JP Morgan Asset management, Morgan Stanley Investment management, BNP Asset management, Credit Suisse, the largest British asset manager Legal & General Investment Managers and many others.
There is also Good Startup , a fund that fights to “eliminate animals from the food system” by replacing them with alternative proteins, produced by plants, grown from animal cells or created with microbial organisms.
THE LINK BETWEEN FINANCING AND ISSUANCE
According to the provisions of the biodiversity treaty, countries have committed to ending subsidies that damage nature by 2030 and while there has been a lot of talk about the reform of subsidies to the energy sector to discourage the use of fossil fuels, there has been less decided on how to prevent farmers from being affected by the transformation of their sector.
According to a United Nations report , cited by Reuters , about 87% of the $540 billion paid to agricultural producers annually includes measures that distort prices and are potentially harmful to nature and human health. And agriculture, forestry and land use are responsible for about 24% of annual global emissions, the majority of which is thought to be attributable to livestock.
Furthermore, a British study on the economics of biodiversity states that subsidies cause $4-6 trillion in damage to nature every year.
WHAT THE FAIRR IS ASKING FOR
The Fairr coalition, whose appeal comes a few weeks before the G20 which will be held in India on 9 and 10 September, asks world leaders to reform financial support for agriculture and land use.
Investors believe that this must include the gradual elimination of subsidies for red meat and dairy products, products with a high impact on climate-damaging emissions, so that funding is redirected to support affected workers, sustainable agriculture and alternative foods with lower environmental impact.
WHY A REFORM
The coalition believes that meat and dairy products are kept artificially cheap and research and development funding is easier to obtain for animal agriculture than for cultured meat or plant-based proteins.
A recent study reported by Edie states that between 2014 and 2020 the United States and the European Union paid £35 billion in subsidies to meat and dairy farmers, compared to just £33 million in public spending on plant-based alternatives.
THE RESULTS OF FAIRR'S LOBBYING ACTIVITY
Fairr, which was launched in 2016, has already reached an important milestone. With its lobbying activity on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), it managed to obtain the drafting of a global roadmap for the food sector up to 2050, the results of which will be made known on the occasion of the COP28 which will be held from 30 November to 12 December in Dubai.
And the appeal launched two years ago to the G20 countries to make known the objectives for reducing agricultural emissions in their national plans was also taken up by the United Arab Emirates itself, which asked the governments to sign a declaration that includes this commitment.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/una-coalizione-multimiliardaria-in-difesa-di-unalimentazione-sostenibile/ on Sat, 09 Sep 2023 05:08:20 +0000.