Response to Simon Heffer (Telegraph Octover 2009)

If Simon Heffer is unconvinced by the man made global warming argument for eating less beef then perhaps he would consider instead the facts of our rapidly growing global population, world water shortages and a finite amount of land to be sufficient reasons for at least moderating his meat intake rather than inciting us all to indulge. These facts alone are very real threats to world food security. Also adding to the pressure is the large number of people in countries such as China trying to move up the food chain, increasing demand for more grain intensive livestock products. Animal production does not make the most effective use of our land and water supplies, with grain-fed cattle requiring approximately 7kg of grain to produce a 1kg gain in live weight (compared to around 2kg in poultry) and 15 cubic metres of water per kg compared to around 3 cubic metres per kg for grain type crops. If some of the land used to produce meat for us greedy, overweight Westerners was used for crops instead, more people could get fed and if we also ate less of the meat produced ourselves, this would mean more to go around and help people become better nourished in the developing world.

Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute suggests in his book ‘Plan B 4.0: Mobilising to save Civilisation’ that ‘Those of us with diets heavy in fat-rich livestock products can do both ourselves and civilisation a favour by moving down the food chain’. Thus we don’t necessarily all have to go as far as become vegan to affect a noticeable change, but we can make a real difference by committing to a reduction in the amount of grain fed meat we eat (which we already know is too much per head to be healthy). When we do eat meat, we should resist the temptation to over do it (no more over sized steaks!), watch the waste and make sure it is from a home grown extensively reared animal and grass fed if that is what nature intended. Making these less selfish, more sustainable choices would help us move towards a more level pegging on the food chain across the globe. The NHS would also benefit and if Simon Heffer is wrong about the whole man made global warming thing (although of course we’d all love him to be right), then thankfully less harm will have been done. One thing is for certain. This is about humanity and civilisation and nothing to do with any international anti-capitalist conspiracy theory, whatever that may be.