The world鈥檚 biggest meat and dairy companies are flooding the public with promises to tackle global warming, but almost all are greenwashing, a new analysis claims.

Animal agriculture is a major driver of climate change, responsible for at least 16.5 per cent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. In response to scrutiny, the industry has responded with a slew of sustainability pledges.

To evaluate these efforts, at the University of Miami and her colleagues analysed the most recent sustainability reports and consumer-facing websites of 33 of the world鈥檚 largest meat and dairy corporations between 2021 and 2024. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really trying to understand what is real and what is PR,鈥� she says.

The team identified 1233 environmental claims. 鈥淎lmost all of them 鈥� 98 per cent 鈥� could be classified as greenwashing,鈥� says Jacquet 鈥� claims that are deceptive or intentionally misleading by, for example, providing a vague promise of future climate commitments without offering a clear plan to achieve it. More than two-thirds of the statements lacked any supporting evidence, and only three claims were backed by scholarly scientific literature.

Currently, 17 of the 33 companies evaluated have set net-zero targets. Yet, much like the fossil fuel sector, the claims appear distant and rely on carbon offsets rather than reducing actual emissions.

Those more concrete measures touted by firms were much less significant in magnitude than the grand future-facing claims. One regenerative agriculture pilot involved just 24 farms, representing a microscopic 0.0019 per cent of the firm鈥檚 total global operations. Other companies promoted negligible packaging tweaks, including reducing the width of the tape used on packs of sausages by a mere 3 millimetres.

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鈥淭he authors convincingly illustrate how many of the industry鈥檚 claims amount to not much more than window dressing,鈥� says at the University of Oxford.

Food shock is inevitable due to the Iran war 鈥� and it could get bad

Even if the conflict in the Middle East ends today, higher fuel, fertiliser and pesticide prices will lead to a food shock in the coming months. There is no easy way out, but accelerating the net-zero transition will help prevent future shocks

at the University of Aberdeen, UK, who co-developed the used to analyse the companies鈥� claims, says the findings 鈥渄on鈥檛 come as a surprise to me鈥�.

Greenwashing remains common within the industry, say other experts. 鈥淕iven the power of large companies, and the constrained ability to change within the current market norms, this leads to incentives to over-promise, to appear more progressive than they are, and to lobby for the status quo,鈥� says at the University of Leeds, UK. 鈥淚nevitably, as with tobacco and fossil fuels, there are also market actors who will use spin and misinformation to protect their businesses.鈥�