The animal agriculture industry’s obstruction of campaigns promoting individual climate action
Loredana Loy, Jennifer Jacquet
Abstract
The oil and gas industry has regularly deflected responsibility towards individual consumers. In contrast, here we show that the US animal agriculture industry has not only avoided notions of individual responsibility but has obstructed even modest efforts to encourage individual dietary change. Drawing on records from 1989 to 2023, we document civil society efforts to advocate dietary shifts as a climate change mitigation strategy, including the Greenhouse Crisis Foundation, Diet for a New America, Beyond Beef, and Meatless Monday, and the industry’s opposition to these campaigns. The animal agriculture industry hired scientists to produce industry-friendly emissions reports and challenge individual action, influenced public discourse around dietary change, and created a front group, the Food Facts Coalition, with a mission to defend the industry against ‘anti-cow arguments’. The animal agriculture industry’s response to individual dietary change illustrates a unique form of climate obstruction and suggests that an industry’s approach to personal responsibility is context-dependent and action-specific.