Should we really be putting beef farmers out of business to save the planet? I am deliberately trying to make this blog non political but the Health Secretary Andy Burnham's plan to cut climate change by reducing the number of beef cattle bred for the table by a third is one of sheer lunacy.
While there are many sensible ways to go green, wiping out the livestock industry is not one of them. As well as being ruinous for farmers and the landscape, it would be utterly impractical. The number of livestock is dictated by the market for the meat. Arbitrarily cutting the domestic supply by a third will not make people greener – just angrier.
The telegraph has a good piece on this story: see
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/6655846/Incentivise-people-to-help-the-environment.html
