Summary
We all need to change our diets to reduce meat consumption by 20 % or at least reduce our emissions. Farmers are caught in a perfect storm of supermarket pricing, ELMS subsidies and rising costs. Consumers need to be aware of how they reduce their emissions. But above all we need an effective food strategy.
We need to reduce our carbon footprints to tackle climate change. Food is around 25 % to 30 % of our emissions.
Beef and Lamb are particularly problematic in the emission of harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs). We import around 40 % of our food in the UK, which is also not good for the emission of GHGs.
Farmers are being battered by Climate Change, both literally through floods and storms and by the measures required to tackle it.
They are also squeezed by Supermarket prices and rising costs of all inputs. Tackling climate change may not be at the top of their agenda.
Consumers need to change their meat consumption to reduce their emissions. In principle that might threaten Shropshire’s beef and lamb producers. But it does not have to, if they take up sustainable farming, and reduce electricity costs by switching to renewables.
But we also need to have a proper food strategy. The government had a go, but it is not there yet, according to the Climate Change Commission.
The plan needs to be a proper integration of subsidies, consumers diets and farming methods.
The Shropshire Star published an article, which summarised all of this.
Read it by clicking on the button
