The climate change committee wants us to eat a lot less meat, but Andrew Livingston isn’t confident the public will stomach the idea
Last week, the Climate Change Committee* (CCC) announced that the answer to all our problems was to ‘eat less meat’. Yes – it’s time to dust out the rabbit food to save the planet!
The CCC, if you didn’t know, had met for their seventh carbon budget, and are now calling for a 27% reduction in cattle and sheep numbers.
Its recommendation is that by 2040, the public should have reduced meat consumption by a quarter, and dairy by a fifth.
The Government could very well actually implement these measures in the hunt for Net Zero: after all, farmers already hate this government, so Kier and his mates may as well cross the Rubicon.
UK agriculture accounts for just 12% of the country’s carbon emissions – but it occupies 70% of the land. Which really begs the question: what exactly is happening on the other 30% of the land that’s churning out the remaining 88% of emissions?
Meat dealer
The Government might be able to dictate to farmers what to produce, but people will always eat what they want. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) wants meat consumption slashed by over a third by 2050. Introduce a meat tax and we’ll be right back in the Middle Ages, the rich feasting on roast beef while the poor are left gnawing on rats … or worse, tofu.
I can already picture the dystopian fallout: Farmer Giles, headlights off, crawling through London’s backstreets in a battered Land Rover, its boot packed to the brim with off-market lamb shanks and sirloin steaks. He pulls up in a dark alley, meeting a desperate meat junkie – wild-eyed, shaking and whispering, “You got the good protein?”
Now, don’t get me wrong: on the whole I don’t disagree with eating less meat – but buying better quality instead. I’m aware that a farmer telling people to eat less meat is a bit like a turkey voting for Christmas, but variety is the spice of life! Just to be clear though – I said less meat. Not fake meat.
Oh, the irony
Honestly, if you want to be a vegetarian that is absolutely fine. Do what you want. But there are so many amazing protein-rich foods out there for you, in all manner of shapes and colours, why do you insist on mushing it up, putting it in a skin and calling it a ‘sausage’?
(Uh oh. Now I think might actually be turning into my dad …)
Lentils, dried peas and the great British broad bean are all grown in this country – and they are all packed full of protein. If we’re eating veg, we should eat British!
Currently, the UK imports more than three million tonnes of soya beans for animal feed, and to make tofu and soya milk.
Soya in animal feed is an issue I have raised before, and one that I hope might be solved with the introduction of insects as animal feed – probably the larvae of the Black Soldier Fly.
The main source of soy is South America: it’s grown on land that was once rainforest and a carbon sink.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat soya, obviously – I’m just saying let’s be realistic about how environmentally friendly any food really is.
Are we just offshore farming our carbon to produce food?
Is it not important to be food secure?
Interestingly, soy is slowly becoming viable for growing in the UK, mainly for human consumption. There are even companies that make tofu from soy that is solely grown in the UK now. The sheer irony of it: the main reason we can now grow soya beans in the UK is from the rising temperatures due to climate change … caused in part by the loss of our rainforests and carbon sink …
Every cloud, silver linings and all that.
- The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) advises the government on emissions targets and reports to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
CCC is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Insects as the Answer?
- Black soldier fly larvae can be farmed on organic waste, turning them into high-quality protein for animal feed.
- Insect farming requires up to 98% less land than soy production.
- Insects offer a locally-produced, circular solution, reducing waste while providing a sustainable food source.
- By 2050, UK pig, poultry and aquaculture sectors could use 540,000 tonnes of insect meal annually.
- This could replace around 524,000 tonnes of soy imports – cutting the UK’s soy footprint by 20%.
- The first UK factories producing insect meal at scale are already in development.
Insects might not be on your dinner plate (yet), but they could soon be feeding the animals that are!
