Speaking at the Red Meat Sector Conference in Christchurch, Professor Frédéric Leroy, who has a background in microbiology, food science and human and animal well-being at Vrije University Brussels, told delegates that meat has become a "pharmakon", meaning that it is all at the same time a remedy, a poison and a scapegoat. Professor Leroy said the industry as a whole had a responsibility to ''change the narrative''.