Environmental claims, climate promises, and ‘greenwashing’ by meat and dairy companies

Animal agriculture has disproportionate environmental impacts relative to other forms of food production and accounts for at least 16.5% of all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Many of the largest meat and dairy companies are aware of these environmental concerns and have responded by making explicit environmental statements and commitments. In this study, we isolated the environmental claims made in the most recent sustainability reports and websites (2021–2024) of 33 of the world’s largest meat and dairy companies. We identified 1,233 environmental claims, of which 68% (841) were climate-related. Of the 1,233 claims, 38% (467) were unverifiable future projections such as “achieve carbon neutrality by 2030” or “enable the restoration of 600 billion liters of water in water-stressed regions by 2030.” Of the 33 companies, 17 have now made net-zero commitments, but as with oil and gas companies, the commitments appear to rely on plans to offset carbon emissions rather than to decarbonize. Companies provided supporting evidence for 356 (29%) of the 1,233 claims and provided scholarly scientific evidence to support only three of these claims, two of which were climate-related. We also examined each of the 1,233 environmental claims using a greenwashing framework and found that 98% (1,213) could be categorized as greenwashing, such as “produce net climate-neutral dairy by no later than 2050.” Meat and dairy companies, which produce disproportionate amounts of pollution relative to other kinds of foods, have prioritized climate change in their sustainability initiatives. They make many promises and provide very little supporting evidence. Like the fossil fuel industry, which has used greenwashing over the last several decades to delay meaningful climate action, the meat and dairy industry may be misleading consumers and investors regarding whether and to what extent they are addressing environmental impacts, including climate change, with even less time to spare.