Campaign draws up eight principles to guide people who want to be healthier and reduce their environmental impact

Eating less meat has long been advocated for our health and that of the planet, but the choices we make within that advice can be just as important, according to a new report.

Choosing lamb, for instance, means the animal is almost certain to have been grass-fed and free range, as sheep are not factory farmed in the same way as pigs or chickens. Meat from pasture-fed animals also tends to have higher levels of “good” fats, which are healthier.

Quick guide What do food labels actually signify? Show Hide Do you know your grass-fed from your pasture for life? Your outdoor-bred from your outdoor-reared? Food labels are a minefield for consumers, with a bewildering variety of different marques denoting widely diverging standards. Eating Better, the alliance of more than 50 NGOs that is hoping to encourage people to eat “less and better” when it comes to meat and dairy products, found: “Currently, there is no label that delivers neatly across all our better meat and dairy principles, although organic comes closest.” The organic label is regulated at EU level, with clear prescriptions on what practices are allowed and banned. However, the Soil Association logo denotes food that has gone beyond the EU standard, for instance on antibiotic use and slaughter practices. At the other end of the scale, quality assurance schemes such as the familiar Red Tractor fail to ensure higher welfare, the report found. Instead, while Red Tractor provides assurances on the provenance of products, that they are from the UK, the standards it stipulates are only the legal minimum that applies anyway to UK food production. Free range also covers a multitude of standards, including chickens kept at densities at which their access to the outdoors is so crowded they cannot reach it in practice. So consumers should look not only for a free range demarcation but also a higher-welfare label if possible - for instance, the “Pasture Promise” label for free range dairy certifies that cows have been grazed outside for at least six months a year, and fed on silage or hay in the winter. By contrast, grass-fed can mean animals that are kept indoors but fed on grass products. Outdoor-bred can mean animals are only born and live with their mothers outside for four to six weeks, then moved indoors after weaning, unlike outdoor-reared by which they are given outdoor access for most of their lives.

The new campaign, by the Eating Better coalition of more than 50 civil society groups, shows consumers how the choices of meat and dairy products they buy have an impact on global problems, such as climate change, antibiotic use, hunger and malnutrition, and animal welfare. They hope that advocating a “less and better” approach will help consumers to reduce the adverse environmental impact of their food choices, as well as proving healthier.

Eight principles have been drawn up to help people navigate the minefield of confusing and sometimes conflicting advice, and to draw clear parallels between what is in our shopping baskets and the health of the planet.

For instance, buying smaller amounts of meat at a time cuts down on waste and improves health, as guidelines suggest keeping red meat to no more than 70g a day. Avoiding intensively reared animals also cuts down on antibiotic overuse, which is increasingly a threat to human health.

The principles are intended to help people who want to be healthier and reduce their environmental impact, without having to move to vegetarianism or veganism, and while improving farm animal welfare.

Sue Dibb, coordinator of the alliance, said: “Industrial livestock production is having a devastating impact on our health, animal welfare and the health of the planet. As people are becoming more conscious about what they eat, a less and better approach to meat and dairy provides a positive way forward.”

Consumers are also confused by the labelling on foods. The report found the organic label is the most straightforward as it is laid down in EU law, leaving little room for doubt over the standards required to meet it. However, labels such as “free range” are open to a variety of interpretations, which can make shopping a minefield for consumers who want to make more ethical and healthier choices. Eating Better wants clearer labelling on foods.

The coalition, whose backers include Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Compassion in World Farming, also wants the government to take action to reward “extensive” instead of “intensive” farming, to enforce tough regulations on factory farming and to curb the spread of “megafarms” across the British countryside.

Dibb said: “We urgently need the government to play its part. Brexit provides a timely opportunity to put our livestock production and consumption on to a more sustainable footing and to support and encourage farming practices that benefit animal welfare, the environment and our health.”

The report is timed to coincide with the consultation the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is undertaking on the future of farming after the UK leaves the EU. It sets out in detail the rationale for policymakers to prioritise extensive and small-scale farming in the UK, which would revitalise farming communities by allowing for the continuance of family farms, which are under threat from increasing moves towards intensive megafarm style production. There are now more than 800 megafarms in the UK, the Guardian revealed last year.

Defra has called for views from farmers, farming organisations, conservation groups, consumer champions and other interested parties for its wide-ranging consultation. Michael Gove, the environment secretary, has repeatedly said that any taxpayer-funded support for farmers after Brexit would be dependent on them delivering public goods, which would include environmental protection as well as food production.

The eight principles – at a glance

The Eating Better coalition’s eight principles for eating meat and dairy, listed below, are fully explained in this PDF.

1. Choose better for the climate

2. Choose better for animals

3. Choose better for nature

4. Choose better for feeding the world fairly

5. Choose better for health

6. Choose better for responsible antibiotic use

7. Choose better for cutting waste

8. Choose better for livelihoods