I’m fed up with talking about the weather, but I can console myself with the fact we have grabbed every opportunity so far and progress is not too bad.Farmers tell McCartney to ‘let it be’
SIR Paul McCartney’s campaign to boycott meat products once a week to combat climate change has been branded ‘simplistic’, ‘opportunistic’ and ‘counter-productive’ by political and industrial leaders.
Sir Paul will travel to Brussels tomorrow (Thursday, December 3) to promote his controversial ‘meat-free Monday’ campaign.
The Beatles legend says a meat-free day is a ‘little thing that can make a big difference to reduce greenhouse gas emissions’ but his comments have outraged Britain’s livestock industry.
Richard Lowe, director of the English Beef and Lamb Executive (Eblex), said the campaign ‘grossly over-simplified the issues’ and only served to drive Sir Paul’s ‘personal agenda to convert people into vegetarians’.
“The sound-bites used by people like Sir Paul are extremely misleading. Beef and sheep farmers are a vital component of the British environment and will play a key role in cutting emissions into the future,” said Mr Lowe.
Overall, UK agriculture accounts for seven per cent of total domestic greenhouse gas emissions. But while the sector is estimated to emit one per cent of carbon emissions, livestock production accounts for nearly half of the total methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
But the industry has worked hard to cut methane emissions by 17 per cent since 1990.
Sir Paul’s trip has also coincided with a ‘climate change roadmap’ from Eblex to cut emissions from livestock by a further 11 per cent from current levels by 2020.
Nick Herbert, Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, praised the industry response to climate change pressures and attacked Sir Paul’s crusade as ‘counterproductive’.
“The timely Eblex report sets out sensible and attainable proposals to reduce harmful emissions from livestock.
“Asking people to give up eating meat diverts attention from the real steps needed to tackle dangerous climate change and it risks alienating people from a vital cause,” he said.
Peter Kendall, NFU president, argued that food producers should be treated in the same manner as the automobile industry.
“We see the UK car industry is praised for and encouraged to produce more efficient and environmentally friendly cars, which will be needed for our low carbon future.
“We also need to see more investment made in agricultural research and development to help farmers and growers produce more efficiently,” he said.
Alyn Smith, Scottish National Party MEP, has invited Sir Paul out to dinner in Brussels to eat ‘a plate of Scots mince’ and to explain the significance of domestic meat production.
He said: “Scotland’s livestock production methods are highly sustainable and we should always be aware that further pressure on the industry may well result in us exporting our emissions elsewhere, rather than making any wholesale world-wide reduction.”
Mr Smith admitted the agriculture sector ‘must play its part in combating climate change’ but argued there were ‘ways to do this that are not only more conducive to reducing emissions but will also make our farm businesses more resilient to the impact of climate change’.
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Readers' comments (3)
Hereford Bull | 3 December 2009 7:44 am
What about a "Food free Friday" campaign, where all those concerned about agricultures role in GHG production go without food for a day, doing their little bit for the climate. It will also serve to show what it will be like starving in this country if all these uninformed idiots (government ministers especially included) have their way.
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Wendy | 4 December 2009 5:01 am
I don't think Sir Paul is hiding the fact that he hopes people will discover they like eating vegetarian after trying a meat free Monday. He says it on a MFM website video. There are two separate issues, the environmental, and the humanitary (not killing animals). Reducing meat consumption helps both those issues at the same time. What is the environmental cost of creating "soggy pork?" (lab grown meat that may be ready in five years according to CBC news. Farmers could be helped to change what they produce if lab growing is efficient and palatable enough.
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Anonymous | 15 December 2009 10:23 pm
The simple antidote to meat-free Mondays:
1. The Monday joint. Healthy-sized portions, for example Lamb Henry.
2. Warm up on Mondays. Slow roasts, casseroles, or minced beef cooked as, or alongside, the weekend roast, are delicious a day or two later, reheated.
3. Thaw out on Monday. Cook larger joints and freeze the surplus in slices (economy of scale).
4. Turn the engine - heating, computer, - off on Monday. Isn’t it odd how ruminants are being blamed for what has happened since the escalation of the combustion engine, central heating, and electrical appliances?
5. The Atkins diet on Monday. For those who don’t know, this is the one which is high in meat and low in starchy foods, cutting out those calories.
6. Copenhagen Monday Stew. I’m sure Gordon Ramsay could create a new meat dish.
Without ruminants there would still be methane. Sports fields, parks, amenity areas, and grass verges produce methane from the clippings, and it takes carbon to cut it. Woodland, moorland peat bogs and crops all produce methane when plants die and are broken down.
As for Copenhagen, if the scientists have over-egged it, by the time the politicians have interpreted it and voted, swayed by their expenses, we could be well and truly forty-five minutes over-boiled or frozen.
JW
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