Whenever the meat and dairy industries are under fire for their outsized environmental impact, they turn to one man for defense:  UC Davis Professor Frank Mitloehner.   Mitloehner is an Animal Science professor who calls himself the "Greenhouse Gas Guru"  - despite having no real credentials in climate science.  Over the past decade, Mitloehner has gone to extreme lengths to downplay the massive impact of animal agriculture on the climate.  His tactics include presenting one-sided, cherry-picked data; misrepresenting or omitting details about the harms of livestock production; and attacking the broad scientific consensus as a "quasi vegan" agenda.  He frequently tweets messages attacking both vegans and plant-based meat alternatives.  Does this sound like the unbiased, objective demeanor we expect from a scientist?

A recent Greenpeace/NYT expose  revealed that Mitloehner accepted millions of dollars of livestock industry money to fund his CLEAR Center project.  The CLEAR Center claims its mission is to "help the animal agriculture sector become more sustainable."  However, a read through CLEAR Center articles finds a consistently heavy pro-industry slant.  For instance, they suggest that global emissions numbers are irrelevant, and argue for a highly watered down method of measuring methane emissions  -  both are tactics that give the livestock industry the appearance of sustainability, without reducing the actual level of emissions.

Mitloehner's messaging seeks to create a smokescreen of confusion and doubt around the true climate impacts of Big Meat & Dairy.    He repeatedly denies the broad scientific consensus, supported by dozens of actual climate scientists: that humanity must significantly reduce meat and dairy consumption to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.  It is no coincidence that his funding is almost entirely from livestock interests.  Mitloehner deflects all criticism by saying that he is transparent about his work with the livestock industry.  But the problem is not that Mitloehner works with livestock companies.  The problem is that Mitloehner accepts livestock funding, and then publishes one-sided, biased, and misleading information that contradicts overwhelming evidence about meat and dairy's impact on the environment.

To UC Davis:  Frank Mitloehner's research casts a dark shadow on UC Davis's reputation for scientific integrity and objectivity.   His claims, funding sources, industry affiliations and motivations must be thoroughly investigated by an independent third-party (i.e. not affiliated with UC Davis Animal Science).  While this investigation is ongoing, the CLEAR center website should be shut down.

Petition signers:  please email any comments about this issue both to the Chancellor and Dean of Agricultural Sciences at UC Davis:

  Chancellor Gary May:   chancellor@ucdavis.edu

  Dean Helene Dillard:   hrdillard@ucdavis.edu