Ministers hit out at 'go vegetarian' call

A GOVERNMENT adviser who claimed the public should turn vegetarian to save the planet has been slapped down by ministers.

Lord Stern, author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on tackling global warming, said that meat was a "wasteful" use of water and it created a lot of greenhouse gases, adding "A vegetarian diet is better."

In the Commons yesterday, he came under fire from all sides, with former Labour farming minister Jane Kennedy claiming: "If it is being suggested that vegetarianism will save the world, I am not sure that it is a world in which I want to live."

Shadow Environment Secretary Nick Herbert branded the call for people to give up eating meat as "totally irresponsible and damaging to our livestock industry".

In a sharp rebuke to Lord Stern, farming minister Jim Fitzpatrick told MPs that the comments were "not the position of the Government" and had been slightly exaggerated.

Mr Fitzpatrick insisted: "We support the British agricultural industry – we support our meat producers.

"We certainly believe in a balanced diet. There are a whole number of ways that emissions and greenhouse gases can be tackled and that's not the position of the Government or the department."

He went on: "It is for individual citizens, consumers, to decide what they eat and we support that.

"We say that Lord Stern's comments must be looked at in the perspective of the whole piece he wrote, not one quote, not one sentence."

The National Farmers' Union said Lord Stern's comments suggested "he does not fully understand livestock production" and that an "over-simplified message" does not "take account of the complex interactions within the food and farming system".

Earlier this year, it was announced that meat, eggs and dairy products could be stripped out of some hospital meals under radical plans to cook up "low-carbon food" for patients, visitors and staff.

The eco-measures were aimed at slashing the environmental impact of treating the sick, from the energy used in buildings to the waste produced by disposable medical equipment.

In an interview with the Times this week, Lord Stern claimed that public attitudes would evolve until eating meat was unacceptable.

"I think it's important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating.

"I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student.

"People change their notion of what is responsible. They will increasingly ask about the carbon content of their food."