The Societal Role of Meat and Livestock (SRML) is an initiative of the international scientific community that conducts research in the animal agriculture sector.

​

The activities of the Societal Role of Meat and Livestock are co-ordinated by a volunteer group of leading scientists and subject matter experts on human health and nutrition, environmental science and sustainability, societal issues, economics, and ethics; on animal welfare, veterinary science and technology.

​

The Societal Role of Meat and Livestock committee convenes the International Summit on the Societal Role and Meat and Livestock every two years. The Summits provide an extraordinary opportunity for knowledge exchange and collaboration between scientists, industry leaders and government representatives from around the world.

​

These Summits are not just a series of presentations, but an important opportunity for international multidisciplinary immersion. Here leaders can lean in together to deeply understand the latest scientific evidence on livestock and meat production and its interaction with human diet, health and nutrition, environmental and societal outcomes.

​

To date two Summits have been held. The first was in October 2022 held in Dublin, Ireland, and the second was held in October 2024 in Denver, Colorado, USA.

​

Each Summit saw a hand-picked audience of leading industry players, policymakers and contributing scientists engage in meaningful discussion and debate and agree upon action.

​

The Dublin and Denver Summits both created substantial policy and practical outcomes in multiple areas, each fostering a new era of international collaboration. Some examples of advancements arising from the past Summits are highlighted below.

• The release and endorsement of the Dublin Declaration by over 1,200 verified global scientists has been highly influential in raising awareness that the ideological challenges to livestock and meat production are contrary to the strongest evidence with the scientific majority deeply concerned at the misrepresentation and influence of activist groups.

• The Dublin Declaration has had a significant impact on government policy development, particularly in Europe, and provided reassurance for industry participants that their industry is providing valuable irreplaceable products and environmental and societal services.

• The Denver Call For Action further publicised the need for urgent action, together with the significant advances that can be made through adopting best practice in order to deliver adequate high-quality nutrition to a projected 10 billion people.

• The diet and health presentations over both Summits have been impactful and important in both raising awareness of contemporary evidence and in calling out serious breaches in scientific integrity relating to publication of major health and dietary misinformation.

• The environmental sessions have established the evolution of grasslands as a major natural landform and emphasised the necessity for locally adapted management approaches. The potential for large scale carbon sequestration though grazing management has been presented, as has the symbiotic role of livestock in circularity utilising non-human edible waste products.

• The societal sessions in both Summits have led to increased understanding of the value of livestock in low-to medium-income countries and to the conceptual differences to high-income countries together with impactful discussions on animal ethics and welfare considerations and actions.

• The Summits have created a far more connected global relationship across science and industry, built on improved understanding of regional differences and the overall principles that can deliver adequate nutrition to 10 billion people while creating improved environmental outcomes.

 

Communicating the outcomes of the Summit is a priority. For past events, publication of the peer-reviewed Summit papers in special editions of Animal Frontiers journal has provided a valuable and convenient reference resource supporting a balanced evidence-based approach to policy development, industry action and further research priorities. This will be repeated for the 2026 Summit.