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Challenging talks at the City Meat Lecture 2022

Published on: 25 November 2022

On the 24th November, the City Meat Lecture 2022 took place at Butchers' Hall. Keynote speaker, Professor Alice V. Stanton, led the discussion on a very informative and insightful topic that all in the meat industry needed to hear.

The Panellists, with Professor Alice V Stanton and The Master

The City Meat Lecture 2022 was a sell out event. Attended by Liverymen, influential figures and companies in the meat trade and representatives from all major supermarkets, it was a night that no-one in the meat industry wanted to miss.

Chaired by Liveryman Stuart Roberts, the highly topical subject discussed at this year's City Meat Lecture was:

How Much Red Meat Should We Eat?

Will the WWF Climate Ambitions Endanger Human Health?"

Click below to watch the City Meat Lecture 2022:

Professor Stanton's City Meat Lecture 2022 Presentation slides

Professor Stanton's highly informative slideshow is available to download below.


Download Professor Stanton's City Meat Lecture 2022 slide presentation here

The Lecture

The 2022 City Meat Lecture focussed on how much red meat we should eat. Environmental campaigners such as WWF advise that eating less meat is better for human and planetary health. Keynote speaker Professor Alice V. Stanton demolished the research behind these campaigns. Her key messages were:

•       Animal-source foods (dairy, meat, fish and eggs) are nutrient rich foods.

•       The relationship between red meat and disease burden is mirror J-shaped.

•       Policy-makers should be extremely wary of global health estimates that;

•       Are not rigorously and transparently evidence-based.

•       Ignore the protections against nutritional deficiencies afforded by animal-source foods.

•       The overall ambition of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Basket Initiative, the halving of the environmental impact of UK supermarket baskets by 2030, is highly laudable.

•       However, achieving a 50/50 plant/animal protein sales split would very likely result in substantial nutritional deficiencies - women, children, the elderly and those of low income will be particularly adversely impacted.

•       If meat, fish, dairy and egg protein is replaced by ultra-processed plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, there is considerable risk that deaths and ill-health from diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and cancers will increase.

Key Note Speaker

Professor Alice V. Stanton is a clinician-scientist, currently a Professor at Cardiovascular Pharmacology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland,. She is also a Director of Human Health at Devenish Nutrition.

Author of over 140 peer-reviewed published papers, Professor Stanton has delivered many lectures concerning evidenced-based healthy diets from sustainable food systems, including the Science Lecture at the January 2020 Oxford Farming Conference.

Panelists

A fantastically knowledgeable panel comprising Liveryman Judith Batchelar OBE (biochemist and nutritionist), Jayne Buxton (author of The Great Plant Based Con) and John Powell (Head of Agriculture Sectors Team in Defra) joined the stage, to further discuss the issues raised in the presentation and respond during the Q&A Session.

Thank you to our Keynote Speaker, Chair, Panellists and everybody that bought a ticket to support the City Meat Lecture 2022.