Thursday 31 May 2018

Index shows 36 meat and fish companies are ‘environmentally high risk’

A new food index has labelled 36 meat and fish companies worth $152 billion (£114bn) as ‘high risk’ in terms of health, environmental and social issues.

The Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (FAIRR) index analysed a total of 60 global farming companies.

The companies it graded as "high risk" include major fast food suppliers including Chinese firm Fujian Sunner and Indian firm Venky’s.

Sanderson Farms, the third largest poultry producer in the US, was also given a bottom-tier ranking.

In terms of greenhouse gas emissions and alternative proteins, Norwegian firm Marine Harvest was the top-ranked company, with another firm SalMar being praised for having a comprehensive target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 10% before 2020.

The FAIRR index suggests the livestock sector is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, roughly equivalent to the emissions of the US.

Despite this, the report shows 72% of the sector, worth $175 billion (£131.2bn), is failing to manage climate risk and no major livestock company uses an internal price on carbon.