Comment: Banbury author's views on why we must cut down on meat and dairy consumption - while supporting local farmers and growers

Why we must cut down on meat and dairy consumption - while supporting local farmers and growers

By Linda Newberry.

Recently I presented a petition to Cherwell District Council and spoke to the full council meeting about why it’s crucial that we eat less meat and dairy produce. Among the signatures I collected, one was from a local beef and dairy farmer, who - rather than feeling threatened - clearly understood the need for adaptation.

It’s undeniable that our dependence on animal agriculture must be reduced to protect climate targets and halt catastrophic biodiversity loss. The United Nations, the International Panel of Experts on Food Sustainability and the government’s own Climate Change Committee agree on this. 14.5 per cent of all human-induced emissions are from livestock (and that’s one of the lower estimates). A study reported in Science Journal said that even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, emissions from the global food system alone would make it impossible to limit warming to two degrees or less. Failure to include food systems in climate policy would be as crazy as leaving out transport emissions.

Currently, 85 per cent of UK farmland is used for feeding and rearing livestock. About 55 per cent by weight of wheat, barley, and oats, and almost all oilseed rape and maize production, is for animal feed. Farmed animals take up 30 per cent of all available drinkable water – which will become ever more pressing in the face of droughts and rising temperatures - and 70 per cent of all antibiotics used across the world, creating the serious risk of antimicrobial resistance. Animal husbandry results in huge loss of natural habitats, including rainforests, to provide land for animal feed such as soya. As we’re currently seeing, run-off from poultry farms pollutes rivers, and intensive systems can spread viruses that put wild birds and animals as well as humans at risk of new pandemics.

We can’t expect supermarket shelves to be unaffected by climate breakdown. Our food supply depends on predictability of weather, land use, labour and transport - none of which can be taken for granted. This summer has seen soaring temperatures in southern Europe, China and the United States; droughts, wildfires, floods and rising sea levels all result in the loss of land for agriculture and the potential failure of staple crops. We urgently need to build resilience into the country’s food system - and that can’t be done by devoting so much land to rearing and feeding animals.

The Climate Change Committee says that more must be done to encourage us to install heat pumps, insulate our homes, fly less and reduce the meat we eat. We need changes in the way food is produced, promoted and presented, especially in public life: catering everywhere needs to demonstrate that predominantly plant-based food can be delicious, satisfying and nutritious.

In spite of so much compelling evidence, moves to reduce meat consumption are met with predictable objections. When Oxfordshire County Council passed a motion committing to plant-based catering for its meetings and events, local celebrity Jeremy Clarkson called it ‘madness, utter madness’. Opposing councillors complained that it takes away choice. But OCC isn’t telling people what to eat at home, in restaurants or anywhere other than at a few council meetings each year. The aim is to encourage better, more sustainable choices - and we need to see this in councils and other institutions everywhere.

Others complained that the move was ‘forcing people to be vegan’ and ‘an attack on farmers’. Of course, neither is the case. Eating plant-based food for the occasional meal isn’t the same as being vegan - nearly all of us regularly do that. This vegans-versus-farmers narrative trivialises the issue and distracts attention from possible solutions. Meat will continue to be reared, bought and eaten. But we can reduce emissions, protect biodiversity and support local farmers and growers by buying local, seasonal produce whenever we can.

Many argue that pasture-fed local meat is the most sustainable. That is available locally for those who can pay for it. But how many people eat exclusively local grass-fed meat? How many can afford to? And how much land would be required if everyone did? That can’t be a solution to feeding the nation. Farmers and growers must be given effective government support to move away from intensive animal agriculture and towards the more sustainable methods many are already adopting.

I had several interesting conversations while collecting signatures for my petition. In the face of climate breakdown people often feel helpless, seeing recycling or reducing plastic as the limit of what they can practically achieve. But, as epidemiologist Dr Tim Spector, founder of the Zoe health app, says: “Our food choices are the single most important thing we can do for climate change.” Making this known can help us to make responsible decisions every day - by buying and eating less meat and increasing plant foods in our diets.

It’s no longer a question of whether we need to reduce meat and dairy consumption. The question is whether we have the collective will to adapt while there’s still time to make a difference.