This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A leading U.S. beef industry trade association knew by 1989 that cattle contributed to global warming but focused its response on protecting consumer demand through public relations, according to a new study that examined a decade of industry records. Researchers at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science analyzed internal documents, media coverage and government reports to trace how the National Cattlemen's Association responded to emerging scientific evidence about methane emissions from 1986 to 1996.
They found that the association questioned global warming, downplayed beef production's contribution and challenged campaigns encouraging consumers to eat less beef. The study, published Oct. 7, 2026, in the journal PLOS Climate, was authored by Jennifer Jacquet, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the Rosenstiel School and the Leonard and Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, and Loredana Loy, a postdoctoral researcher at the Rosenstiel School. The researchers say the records reveal an early strategy to influence public understanding of livestock's role in climate change.
"The records show that the trade association understood the issue and knew that options to reduce methane emissions existed," said Jacquet. "Its response focused on shaping what people heard about beef and global warming and countering the idea that eating less beef could help." At the time, methane was drawing growing scientific attention as a heat-trapping gas produced by cattle during digestion and released through manure management. In the mid-1980s, studies increasingly identified livestock as a source of methane, broadening discussions of responsibility for global warming beyond fossil fuels.
In February 1989, an association representative attended a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency workshop that examined livestock methane emissions and ways to reduce them. The resulting report identified potential changes to feeding practices, feed additives and manure management.
Later that year, the association developed an environmental strategic plan that included countering criticism of the cattle industry, commissioning papers from scientific and technical experts and promoting a positive environmental image. Jacquet and Loy documented several communications strategies, including monitoring environmental groups and news coverage, hiring academic experts to produce reports and serve as spokespeople, distributing talking points that minimized cattle's contribution to global warming, and challenging the credibility of advocates promoting dietary change. One widely circulated industry-sponsored estimate put U.S. beef cattle's contribution at just 0.5% of global methane emissions.
The researchers found that the figure was difficult to reproduce and used data to make U.S. cattle's contribution appear small by measuring it against worldwide emissions from both human activities and natural sources. The trade association also promoted cattle producers as environmental stewards through advertisements and outreach materials. For Earth Day in 1990, it spent $100,000 on full-page newspaper advertisements that reached an estimated 20 million people, according to records reviewed in the study.
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