23-04-2008

Wageningen University admits greenhouse gas emissions from Dutch livestock industry 50% higher than reported

University researcher ‘forgets’ about the impact of animal feed on the discussion of greenhouse gasses

A serious ‘error’ appears to have crept into the ‘scientific analysis’ of the statistics used in the documentary Meat the Truth, which was presented last Monday by Wageningen University (WUR) chairman Aalt Dijkhuizen. In the radio programme, De Ochtenden, Dijkhuizen was forced to admit that the figure given by the FAO, namely that the global livestock industry is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gasses, was indeed correct. Moreover, he had to acknowledge the claims made by Meat the Truth that animal protein creates climate problems were also accurate. Dijkhuizen initially made a distinction between these figures and those for the Dutch livestock industry, but he has now had to recant given that the greenhouse gas emissions for the livestock industry in the Netherlands appear to be 50% higher than was previously proclaimed.

In this radio broadcast, Dijkhuizen claimed that the emissions from the Dutch livestock industry comprised ‘only’ 9% of the national greenhouse gas emissions. This subtle distinction now appears to be incorrect. Wageningen ‘forgot’ to take into account the greenhouse emissions, which are a consequence of the massive import of animal feed by Dutch livestock farmers and the destruction of tropical rainforests with which the production of this feed is associated. In an article published in the NRC newspaper on 22nd April 2008, the Wageningen researcher Dr. Peter Kuikman admits that this was an omission. “But”, says Kuikman, “that it is 13 or 15 percent instead of 9 percent really does not matter. We just wanted to show that you cannot unequivocally determine the emissions produced by a sector”.

Wageningen University thus admits that its statistics for the Dutch livestock sector should have actually been 50% or more higher, but that this really is not important. It is certainly worth mentioning that the WUR chairman should have been well informed about the import of animal feed to the Dutch livestock industry given that he used to be the head of the animal feed company Nutreco and is still an important adviser to numerous livestock and meat corporations.

Today, in this radio broadcast, Professor Frits van Oostrom, president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), stated - in the context of the case of WUR and Meat the Truth – that great caution should be advised when deploying sponsored professors. It is unacceptable for the results of professors, which have been sponsored by, for instance, the dairy industry, to be different from the results by academics who have not been sponsored.

The Nicolaas G. Pierson Foundation finds Wageningen University’s subjective approach regrettable and hopes that there enough scientists within the University who are prepared to defend the scientific character of the institution against the threatening and/or advancing conflict of interests due to third party funding