Don’t fall for “climate-friendly” beef
New FOIA documents give insight into the secretive, industry-funded science behind the much-hyped product.
Last year, a major meat brand announced a promising product for people who care about the planet—America’s first “climate-friendly” beef.
U.S. meat behemoth Tyson Foods claims “Brazen Beef” is better for the environment than regular beef because it emits 10 percent less greenhouse gas. It is also the first beef to be certified “climate-friendly” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The label is a big deal for the meat industry as it faces increasing external pressure to reduce its massive carbon footprint. Livestock are responsible for anywhere from 11 to 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and climate scientists have warned for decades that the world needs to eat less meat. Even if fossil fuel emissions were stopped today, the world’s current appetite for meat and dairy alone could push warming past the catastrophic 2 degrees Celsius threshold.
So how do we know if climate-friendly beef is real, and not a corporate greenwashing scam? That question led me to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last year with the USDA. I asked for everything they had on Tyson’s Brazen Beef program, with an emphasis on the scientific data showing that “climate-friendly” beef actually pollutes less than regular beef products.
The USDA responded, but redacted 80 out of 82 pages because it said they contained information protected under the Trade Secrets Act—an exception that allows government agencies to withhold commercial or financial information from public records. The two pages I received contained a single email.
Now, a new report shows that the USDA is still withholding information about Tyson’s Brazen Beef’s environmental impact. The nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG) filed its own FOIA request and obtained 106 pages of internal documents from Tyson Foods, the USDA, and consulting group Deloitte, laying out how Tyson planned to reduce cattle pollution.
The USDA once again redacted all the scientific data about Tyson’s beef emissions—67 out of 106 pages—claiming it is a “trade secret.” Apparently, a corporation’s greenhouse gas emissions are more worthy of protection than the people those emissions affect.
Here’s what the USDA refused to disclose in both our FOIA and the EWG’s:
The benchmark Tyson is using to make its 10 percent reduction claim
The charts tracking methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide emissions through six stages of beef production
All of Tyson’s methods, including how participating farms collect emissions data, and how that data is verified
But this time, with the EWG’s FOIA, the USDA did disclose some new information: footnotes that reveal who is helping Tyson develop and verify this scientific data, as well as its emissions reduction model.
Spoiler alert: It’s a herd of experts funded by Big Beef.
A “transparent” program, riddled with conflicts
One of the most egregious features of Tyson’s Brazen Beef marketing is its consistent emphasis on honesty and transparency.
“If we’re showing up for the climate, then we’ve got to show our work,” the Brazen Beef website reads. “Without supportive hard data, any product that claims to be a sustainable, climate-friendly, or low-carbon alternative to the status quo is vulnerable to greenwashing skepticism,” a senior Tyson vice president acknowledged in a Wall Street Journal article paid for by Deloitte.
The company also claims to have worked with “researchers, technical experts and suppliers” to develop its emissions reduction model—and yet it does not disclose the model, nor any of those researchers, experts or suppliers.
Fortunately, the EWG’s FOIA gives us some insight into the latter. Because while Tyson’s emissions reduction model is entirely redacted, the academic studies the model is based on are not.