Giving up meat is not better for environment

MAY I congratulate the Western Morning News on an excellent article by Mario du Preez in today’s paper. Thought provoking, yes. Analytical, yes. Correct, YES!

I seriously thought it was just me that held the view that moving to a plant-‘based’ diet, as suggested by some, was actually bad for the environment, not good.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think that for a number of rational reasons, such as for health for example, we do need a more balanced diet and that means probably more plant-based ingredients in our diet, and I would probably still agree more with the idea of moving to a plant-based diet if the science supported this move – but it doesn’t.

In fact, you don’t really need to be a scientist or an environmentalist to understand this at all.

The hypocrisy is there for all to see – here we are in one of the world’s greatest grass growing regions – not by our design necessarily, but by default because we luckily live in a moist and warm climate down here which grows grass really well, so why wouldn’t we use this natural ability afforded us to turn this energy into dairy and meat products, especially when the systems developed to do so also return carbon to the land through sequestration as well, which is often not taken into account by those who support plant based systems. But, when you add on the wisdom of buying locally from our dairy and meat producers in the South West, then you are further limiting the impact by reducing the transport costs – and by that I mean the environmental transport costs.

So compare that system with another, which clears rainforest as a first, grows soya on the cleared earth second and then thirdly, transports it around the globe to world vegetarian markets – the impact of which is rather much larger than the local dairy or beef farm down the road.

So, thank you Mario du Preez for pointing out the obvious – the message is clear, don’t debate meat v plant, organic v non-organic, just BUY LOCALLY from Westcountry farms. They are doing their bit, now it’s our turn to do ours.

John Sheaves Chief Executive Taste of the West