Eat less meat

[delilah]

Sorry, I know it has been thrashed about before, but it needs sorting.
Kath Dalmeny was on r4 this morning. When she speaks, people of influence listen.
https://www.sustainweb.org/news/oct18_kath_dalmeny_one_of_top_ten_campaigners_2018/
Kath said, and I will have the words largely correct here:
"It is accepted by everyone, including farming representatives, that we all need to eat less meat".
And she is right. Both the AHDB and the NFU say that we need less cows and more trees.
Question then: Are you as an industry supporting this line ?
And don't start talking about grass fed/ imported feed etc.
The public only hears one message.
Is the message from you, to the public, "Eat less meat", or not ?

 

[davidroberts30]

Not the way my beef is selling

 

[Kevtherev]

Not the way poultry sheds are going up

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Eat better not less.

 

[Kevtherev]

Flat the rainforest then plant the UK with trees for packham to hide in.

 

[Gong Farmer]

Eat better not less.

Exactly, those who eat too much meat should eat less meat.

 

[delilah]

Not the way my beef is selling

For sure, we can all push our own product. But what should the message from the industry, to the public, be ?
Is it sustainable for our individual businesses to be operating in a climate where policy is against us ?
What happens when the message "eat less meat" starts to be turned in to firm policy ?
A tax on meat wouldn't hit those who eat 'too much meat' (if there is such a thing), it would hit you and me.

 

[jellybean]

Eat better not less.

I definitely agree with eating better if we are talking about better animal welfare and conditions. Perhaps addressing all those issues would result in us eating less meat and I cannot see that would be a bad thing. I also accept personal free choice so would not suggest we get told what to do.

 

[7610 super q]

The NFU should have been counteracting this hard over the last 5 years. It's ridiculous for us to cut back on meat consumption only for airplanes to continue using 37,000 gals of fuel in a 10 hour flight. The industry is just being used as a sacrificial goat. ( Must cut back on goat sacrifice ).

 

[Scholsey]

We’re making a effort to eat higher quality red/white meat Instead of cheap white meat but I think British agriculture and the environment would better if everyone did the same but I know they won’t.

 

[Gedd]

How much is too much

 

[delilah]

How much is too much

Quite.
The AHDB and the NFU are not saying "eat less sugar", or "eat less rice/soya/lentils". So why are we saying "eat less meat" ?

 

[Grass And Grain]

First thing to come under the spotlight should be reducing unnecessary GHG emmisions, such as flights to Spain and the wasteful use of land for alcohol production and consumption.

Forage maize and grass in the UK yield 6t+/acre of DM. At a FCE of 6:1 and killing out of 57%, that's 570kg of beef. Compare that to less than 500kg/acre of lentils and all of a sudden the beef doesn't look all so bad.

Large parts of the UK are grass. If we don't produce beef and lamb off this grass then it means importing more food, which in turn means knocking more rain forest down.

What are we going to do with all the rejected milling wheat that hasn't made the grade due to specific weight, low hagburgs, liw protein, sprouting, etc etc. And all the rapeseed meal, and maize gluten, and soyabean meal, and palm kernal sunflower hulls, citrus pulp, linseed expeller etc etc.

Best use is to turn it into animal protein.

 

[DaveGrohl]

I think that in terms of what the media want to tell everyone it doesn't really matter what the NFU or AHDB think, they're largely ignored anyway. It is important at a govt level though in terms of stupid policy decisions. Govts don't need much of an excuse to invent new taxes, let alone right now when we've borrowed squizzilions, a cow tax would seem like a no-brainer for them. They don't need to be scientifically justified, it's all about the perception and the media controls the perception.

What is worrying is that no one at the top of our organisations appear to understand what is actually quite basic science. They've obv had it explained to them by (let's be frank) thick scientists and swallowed it. It's a pretty general truth that the graduates who end up in climate science aren't intelligent enough to go into more complicated areas of science. Obv there will be exceptions, but in the main it's true. It is inevitable we will end up with policies that are stupid when the source of these policies haven't thought things through properly.

It doesn't bode well. You just need to look at the bizarre direction food recommendations in general took from the 50s on the say so of one man, Ancel Keys. How may billions of people worldwide have has their lives cut short or suffered illness because of his misguided belief he knew everything? Some people knew he was wrong at the time but they got drowned out. Sound familiar?

 

[teslacoils]

The message "buy less stuff, go on fewer holidays abroad, and don't change your phone every year" doesn't seem to be getting through.

 

[Muddyroads]

We’re not helped by having Princess Nut Nut in power.

 

[roscoe erf]

cows are not killing the planet people are stop bloody breeding problem solved

 

[Suffolk Serf]

Eat less meat, eat more manufactured, artificial, processed shite.
I don't think that will save the planet.

 

[FonterraFarmer]

Sorry, I know it has been thrashed about before, but it needs sorting.
Kath Dalmeny was on r4 this morning. When she speaks, people of influence listen.
https://www.sustainweb.org/news/oct18_kath_dalmeny_one_of_top_ten_campaigners_2018/
Kath said, and I will have the words largely correct here:
"It is accepted by everyone, including farming representatives, that we all need to eat less meat".
And she is right. Both the AHDB and the NFU say that we need less cows and more trees.
Question then: Are you as an industry supporting this line ?
And don't start talking about grass fed/ imported feed etc.
The public only hears one message.
Is the message from you, to the public, "Eat less meat", or not ?

How much food is grown the year round in a concrete jungle?
Equally point the finger at mass produced processed foods too.

 

[Ted M]

They've obv had it explained to them by (let's be frank) thick scientists and swallowed it. It's a pretty general truth that the graduates who end up in climate science aren't intelligent enough to go into more complicated areas of science.

Quite. A friend of mines brother is a research scientist. He says that as long as they mention climate change when applying for funding they pretty much get the money thrown at them.

As for eating meat, less but better maybe, regarding some global systems of production but as for climate change its a red herring as far as I'm concerned to allow big business to carry on regardless.