Meat under fire

Two reports have emerged this week encouraging us to eat less meat as a way of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and thereby mitigating the effects of climate change.

First came Lord Stern, the climate change guru economist urging us to reduce the amount of meat in our diets.

Then in a paper published by a respected US thinktank, the Worldwatch Institute, two World Bank environmental advisers claim that instead of 18 per cent of global emissions being caused by meat, the true figure is 51 per cent.

A consensus is perhaps beginning to build - elsewhere for example Simon Fairlie writing in The Land magazine has concluded that Britain can feed itself as long as we reduce substantially the amount of meat in our diet.

Environmental arguments backing health arguments.

However meat production will never completely disappear - I work on Dartmoor, and the uplands of the country along with thousands of miles of marginal land along our coasts are only suitable for grazing animals. So farming in these areas will inevitably be livestock based thereby conserving ecological habitats, much loved landscapes and the cultural way of life of those who farm these areas.

In other parts of the country a switch to a more vegetable / cereal based diet should improve our health and also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Expect a huge row of vested interests to erupt over the coming months.