Call for people to eat less but better meat

PEOPLE should be eating less, but better, meat – which is produced in the UK – to tackle climate change, Government adviser Lord Deben has said.

And British farmers producing “the best meat” should not be undermined by trade deals with countries such as Australia, Brazil and the US, where production has a bigger carbon footprint, he warned.

Lord Deben, chairman of the independent advisory Climate Change Committee, made his comments at the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) conference focusing on the move towards net zero.

He criticised trade deals with countries such as Australia, where references to climate change were removed under pressure from the Australian government, and said there is no excuse for undermining British farmers.

CLA president Mark Tufnell also said deals should not allow countries that do not meet the UK’S high environmental standards to sell their produce here tarifffree. He said UK meat is being “tarred with the same brush” as that produced in other countries, when

British beef emits fewer than half the greenhouse gases of global average .