What does the livestock sector say about ruminants and climate change?

In this presentation, Pippa will discuss findings from her PhD, which investigated how the UK livestock sector was responding to public debates about methane emissions from ruminant livestock in the early 2020s. The research methods incorporated critical discourse analysis of news media, qualitative interviews with livestock farmers and other livestock sector stakeholders, and a participatory Photovoice project. To analyse the data, Pippa developed an existing theory by combining concepts pertaining to ontology, epistemology, and identity, showing how these interact with “methane discourses”.

The findings showed strong presence of “discourses of climate delay” and a livestock sector-specific form of climate scepticism. However, practices with the side effect of reducing methane (such as efficiency gains) and sequestering carbon (such as regenerative agriculture) were often embraced, and did not trouble sectoral norms around the position of livestock in the UK’s food system. This illustrates how farm-level discourses interacted with broader societal discourses around climate change and may have promoted lock-in to existing practices.

The research also identified how methane discourses calcify boundaries between livestock farmers and non-farmers, and livestock farmers and policymakers, linking this with increasing polarisation in broader society. Contestation around methane emissions from ruminant livestock echoes comparable controversies around topics such as non-point pollution of waterways and approaches to dealing with bovine tuberculosis, with some new features. The PhD identified a role for improved communication strategies and delivery of processes that facilitate connection between diverse groups: to reduce perceived polarisation and advance societal action on climate change.

Philippa (Pippa) Simmonds is a postdoctoral researcher based at the CCRI. She has a background in clinical medicine and global health, and her research interests include food systems, participatory research, and equitable low-carbon transitions. Pippa’s PhD investigated UK livestock sector discourses and practices pertaining to relationships between ruminant livestock and climate change. During her PhD, she undertook policy placements at both the Welsh Government and the UK Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) on topics related to just transitions and green skills. She is currently working on the UKRI-funded TriSome Chicken project, which is analysing the UK industrial chicken meat sector from a resilience perspective. Outside of research, she enjoys running and lino printing.