Part of the SOLUTION

JO BUDDEN explains why – contrary to recent publicity - eating meat may help save the planet

- Jo Budden

We are lucky to live and work in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Standing at the top of Higher Crow Park, one of the numerous small fields which make up Higher Hacknell Farm, we can see the slopes of Exmoor in the distance, the North Devon coast, and facing south, the tors of Dartmoor.

In between there’s a patchwork of green and yellow fields, divided by darker lines of hedges and woodlands, which drop down to the deep valley of the Taw. It’s a familiar Devon landscape of small mixed farms but it is also a complex and evolved ecosystem. It is hard to believe that this kind of farming is in part to blame for climate change.

But this is what we are being told on a daily basis - ‘eat less read meat’- from the EAT-Lancet Commission report to the Cowspiracy documentary. Every day we hear people say they are going vegan, or only eat fish and chicken, because it’s better for the environment.

Even the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) recently stated ‘Buy less milk, meat, cheese and butter and more locally sourced seasonal food’. And this is why we need to answer back, because milk, meat, cheese and butter are our locally sourced seasonal food in Devon.