Quality Meat Scotland

chief executive Alan Clarke, said that it was vital that science played a central role in the question of sustainable food production.

He said Scottish livestock had particularly strong sustainability credentials as around 80 per centof the country’s farmland was only suitable for growing grass which could produce both beef and lamb while capturing CO2 from the atmosphere.

A spokesperson for Go Vegan Scotland said that there was increasing recognition of the devastating impact of “animal agriculture” and the need to switch to plantbased consumption: “It’s time the Scottish Government shifted public money subsidies away from propping up animal-use industries and started to give support to farmers and land owners to grow crops for human consumption and re-establish native woodlands.”