The chief executive of Impossible Foods is in talks with UK farmers for a pilot project to swap livestock for trees to fight climate change.
, who founded the fast-growing plant-based 鈥渕eat鈥� firm in 2011, says he wants to demonstrate the economic benefits of taking farmland out of cattle and sheep production to allow forests to grow on it and absorb carbon. He argues livestock farmers would be financially better off selling carbon offsetting permits to airlines and other polluting industries.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very nascent. What I鈥檓 interested in doing is kind of like a鈥� demonstration project to show that it is actually very financially sound to buy land from livestock farmers and manage it for biomass recovery and sell carbon offsets,鈥� Brown tells New 杏吧原创.
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The Stanford University scientist is one of a growing number of experts proposing land for meat production will need to be freed up to grow trees that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere if the world is to meets its climate goals. The UK government鈥檚 statutory climate advisers want to see a fifth of UK farmland taken out of production and used to store carbon by turning it over to tree-planting.
鈥淎lmost every livestock farmer on Earth would make more money at $50 (拢38) a tonne [of carbon dioxide], accumulating [plant] biomass on their land as opposed to livestock,鈥� says Brown. The price of a tonne in the EU鈥檚 flagship CO2 trading scheme has been over 鈧�60 (拢51) for the past month.
On a recent trip to the UK for the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Brown spoke with UK farmers about hosting a trial project. He says there was some scepticism, but he believes the wider adoption of the idea could be enthusiastic because 鈥渢hose farmers are making a pittance right now鈥�.
鈥淚 agree with the idea in principle,鈥� says at Aberdeen University in the UK. 鈥淚 can see why it is met with some scepticism though 鈥� livestock farmers are not foresters. We need to find a way of transitioning away from livestock farming in a way that works for farmers.鈥�
Brown says he was disappointed that speeding up the phase-out of animal agriculture to cut emissions wasn鈥檛 high on the agenda at COP26. 鈥淭his should be the number one topic at COP, because there鈥檚 nothing that comes close for having a fast and dramatic impact on climate change,鈥� he says.
, not yet peer-reviewed but accepted for publication, calculates that phasing out animal agriculture in 15 years would provide around half the emissions savings needed to meet the Paris Agreement鈥檚 goal of holding temperatures below 2掳C this century. Previous studies .
at Reading University, UK, says Brown鈥檚 pilot may face economic and cultural hurdles. The amount of carbon taken up by most tree species in the first 10 to 20 years is 鈥渘egligible to very small鈥�, he says, raising questions over how many carbon permits could be sold. He also thinks most farmers will be reluctant to be the person who 鈥渞uined鈥� a farm by converting it to a natural state and letting it become a forest.
The UK鈥檚 National Farmers Union (NFU) says carbon markets hold potential opportunities for farmers. But Stuart Roberts at the NFU says: 鈥淲e really must move away from the idea that all livestock production is the same the world over and by simply removing it from the equation we solve the climate change crisis overnight. This simply isn鈥檛 the case.鈥�
A spokesperson for Impossible Foods says: 鈥淲e continue to explore new ways to work with farmers to support initiatives that provide the best value for their land.鈥�
