The negative environmental and social impacts of industrialized animal agriculture represent some of the most significant investment risks and opportunities of the climate change era.

Given investors’ concerns about climate change-related financial risks, it seems unlikely that an industry that is a leading cause of climate change and also induces and exacerbates related environmental and social issues, including biodiversity loss, freshwater shortages, arable land degradation, and the spread of infectious disease could largely avoid these stakeholders’ scrutiny and pressure. Yet, this is exactly what has happened.

The industry is animal agriculture. Even among sustainable investors, it has rarely emerged as an area of focus or concern. We take the position that it should—among global asset managers as well as pension funds and endowments, venture capital and private equity funds, development banks, private sector lenders and insurers, and any regulator who takes seriously the notion that ESG-related reporting can help “direct capital to investments that drive solutions to the sustainability crises we face.”