Stop lecturing people on red meat, says Norwegian minister
© Tim Scrivener Norway’s new health minister says people should be allowed to eat as much red meat as they want.
Sylvi Listhaug, who was appointed as the country’s health minister on Friday (3 May), said she wanted her government to allow people to make choices for themselves.
“My starting point for the job is very simple. I don’t plan to be a moral police, and will not tell people how to live their lives,” she told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).
See also: The EAT-Lancet diet is nutritionally deficient, says obesity expert
“Instead, I intend to help people get information that forms the basis for making choices.”
Mrs Listhaug, deputy leader of the centre-right Progress Party, said the government’s role was to provide information to allowed people to make informed choices.
Inform people
She added: “The authorities may like to inform, but people already know pretty well what is healthy and what isn’t, I believe.”
In recent months, agriculture’s carbon footprint, in particular the production of red meat, has come under intense criticism from environmental groups who say a plant-based diet is better for the environment.
A major report by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) – the independent adviser to the government on climate change – has recommended eating less red meat and planting more trees to help save the environment.
And a 1,800-page UN report, released on Monday (6 May), concluded that agricultural activities were one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and, as such, food production is one of the biggest threats to the Earth’s ecosystems.
Wrongly blamed
But the National Sheep Association (NSA) says red meat is being “wrongly blamed” for climate change with “unbalanced and inadequate” reporting.
NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said: “It is really frustrating to yet again see our extensive livestock sectors caught up within criticisms of agriculture and their impact on climate change and biodiversity, and little mention of other damaging activities, which may be less popular to criticise.
“It is seemingly OK to offset emissions from flying around the world through carbon sequestering actions such as tree planting and peatland management, but not OK for a farm to do its own internal offsetting.”
The role of grazed grassland, rotational and permanent leys in building soil organic matter, soil biology, and storing carbon is being ignored, the NSA said.