More and more Brits are turning vegetarian: there are now as many as 3 million. It’s good that people are being thoughtful about what they eat, and if they are rejecting meat because of the moral issue of eating another living being, fine. But if they’re eschewing it because they see meat production as cruel and a polluter of the planet, that makes me furious. Such misunderstandings about meat cause the devaluing of one of the most rich and skilful parts of Britain’s food culture.
Not all meat is ethically produced, of course. But over the last 30 years I’ve spoken to hundreds of farmers around the UK and my conclusion is that scale and place matter – and so does the type of farming. Britain’s climate has led to a tradition of pasture-fed animals. Our best meat feeds on grass and has a much smaller environmental footprint than the American intensivly farmed grain-fed beef behind the oft-quoted bad eco-stats about meat production: namely, that it takes 7kg grain to produce 1kg beef. And grass maintained for grazing helps trap large quantities of carbon – it’s a beneficial way of preserving the environment.