The role of meat production and meat consumption is in the spotlight today (Wednesday, October 19) as international experts gather in Dublin to take a closer look at the importance of meat to society.

The two-day summit on ‘The Societal Role of Meat – What the Science Says’ is being hosted by Teagasc and will feature a number of world-leading experts from the US to New Zealand, Ireland and Zimbabwe.

Among the key speakers is Alice Stanton from the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, who will discuss “how much read meat is good for us”.

The summit will also examine the importance and scale of meat production in different countries.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon believes the Dublin event will help encourage debate around key issues.

Minister of State, Martin Heydon said:

“It has never been more important to move forward with accurate and scientific understanding of meat’s critical role in society.

“Ireland welcomes the scientific effort embodied in the conference, and its contribution to global solutions that ensure meat drives solutions for a healthy future.”

The two-day summit will explore, in depth, key issues including livestock farming and meat in diet, health and society.

Speakers will also address how farming and meat consumption plays a significant role in economics, culture and the ongoing debate around a sustainable environment.

Teagasc assistant director of research, Declan Troy, said that in advance of the UN Climate Summit in November it is important to ensure that agricultural, industrial, governmental and educational stakeholders have the information they needed to act in everyone’s best interests.

Troy said it is crucial that the best-available scientific information regarding livestock farming and meat consumption’s impacts on individual and population health, the environment, and livelihoods is available to political decision makers.

The findings from the summit discussions will feature in a peer-reviewed edition of the scientific journal Animal Frontiers, which is scheduled to be published in early 2023.

All of the summit attendees, with academic and scientific credentials, will be invited to endorse the evidence base by signing the ‘Dublin declaration of scientists on the societal role of meat’.