When Meat Giants Call Themselves Climate Champions

Inside COP30’s food debate, where factory farms got a green halo and agroecology was pushed to the sidelines.

Industrial livestock is sold as part of the climate solution at events like COP30, even as cattle herds and feed production continue to drive deforestation and emissions.

When I wrote about COP30 at the start of the summit, I said I would be watching how animal agriculture was talked about and who got to tell that story. Now that Belém has emptied out and the headlines have moved on, I keep coming back to one uncomfortable truth.

The loudest voices on livestock were not the farmers trying to change how they work. They were the corporations who helped create the problem, now rebranding themselves as part of the solution.