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The BBC has come under fire after removing a documentary on climate change titled Meat: A Threat To Our Planet.
The broadcasting company pulled the film, narrated by animal biologist Liz Bonnin, following complaints from the National Farmers’ Union.
NFU members claimed the program was ‘biased’ in its depiction of livestock farming, and that the documentary ‘failed to make clear distinctions between grass-fed regenerative beef farming in the U.K and cattle ranching in the Amazon’.
‘Intensive farming’
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) responded to the complaint saying the documentary did not meet its standards of impartiality in relation to controversial subjects.
It said the program only provided a ‘partial analysis’ of the environmental impact of livestock farming and was ‘based almost exclusively on intensive farming methods’.
The ECU did not draw attention to how an estimated 73 percent of farmed animals in the U.K are kept in factory farms – with close to 800 U.S-style mega-farms operating across the nation.
According to Compassion In World Farming, there has also been a 26 percent increase in intensive animal farming in Britain in the last six years.
‘Eco-friendly farming’
A petition calling for the documentary to be reinstated has already surfaced online, attracting nearly 500 signatures at the time of writing.
“The BBC has given into lobbying by the NFU who complained that it did not show enough eco-friendly farming,” the petition states.
“The program was extremely informative and looked at industrial farming around the world which is a threat to our planet and climate change.”
