Ministers afraid to target meat consumption in land use strategy

The government has been accused of being 'pathetically nervous' about encouraging the public to eat less meat after excluding the target from a key strategy.

The Guardian may reveal that the government's next land use strategy will not include a reduction in the area used for animal agriculture in England.

< p class="dcr-h26idz">Climate groups have long urged the government to take action to cut meat consumption, and now accuse ministers of 'sinking the cost of living crisis and continuing to drag us down towards climate and ecological catastrophe”.

Eighty-five percent of the land that feeds the UK is given over to animal agriculture. A government-commissioned food strategy by Henry Dimbleby last year found that for a sustainable future this must be reduced, leading to a 30% reduction in the average amount of meat consumption. Intensive and excessive animal husbandry leads to carbon emissions as well as pollution and degradation of nature. It also uses an amount of land deemed unsustainable by experts.

However, this recommendation was not made as part of the government's response to the Dimbleby food strategy , and ministers at the time said more details on land use and diet would be released as part of its land use strategy, which is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

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However, a senior Defra source told the Guardian The Guardian's recommendations on reducing animal farming would not be included, saying: 'It's not our job, it t was the job of the food strategy…it's not up to us to tell people what to eat. We will present a range of options."

Dimbleby has previously stated that there is "no other way to solve the equation" when it comes to land use and carbon emissions, pollution and net zero.

He told the Guardian last year that no government would tell the public to eat less meat because the message was "politically toxic". p>

Craig Bennett, Chief Executive of Wildlife Trusts, said: "How the hell can you have a land use strategy that completely ignores the biggest driver of change use of land in this country and one of the quickest and easiest options to reduce emissions?The government is happy to tell people to eat less salt and sugar, but is pathetically nervous to the idea of ​​encouraging people to eat less meat, but of better quality. on this issue and a p eur of certain pressure groups. Its own committee on climate change says reducing meat consumption is crucial to reaching net zero.

Megan Randles, Policy Adviser to Greenpeace UK, said: Warned that unless meat and dairy production is reduced, we could end the use of fossil fuels tomorrow and continue heading towards catastrophic levels of climate change.

"As Europe experiences a heat wave in January, the government willfully ignores the truth about the role of meat production in climate change.It omitted a crucial meat reduction target from its food strategy last year, despite advice from its own experts. , it shifts responsibility for land use back to farmers with no certainty about the level of support to be offered, as the rollout of new environmental land management programs is continually delayed.”

"By not facing the facts, the UK government is making the UK government worse cost of living through the crisis and continuing to lead us towards a climatic and ecological catastrophe. ”

Speaking at the Oxford Farm Conference, Agriculture Minister Mark Spencer defended the government's decision to have a hands-off approach when it came to telling landowners what to do. “We certainly have a huge role to play in determining how and what we use the land for now. Personally, I don't want to be too prescriptive because once you start creating these things from Whitehall, you don't always get the results you're trying to achieve. »