Stop eating beef and lamb to help tackle climate change, experts warn

People should stop eating beef and lamb as it is bad for the environment, a report form a British team of experts has warned.

The government’s committee on climate change has called for up to a 50% cut in the number of sheep and cattle to help combat environmental harm.

It is the latest call that eating red meat is bad for the environment, as well as poor for people’s health.

The report says that lamb, beef and dairy production accounts for the majority of greenhouse gases emitted by British farms.

Sheep and cattle are directly responsible for around 58% of agricultural emissions in the UK in 2016, the committee argues.

It is also calling for more forests to be planted, currently used for sheep and cow farming.

The committee says the amount of British land under forestry should increase from the current 14% to 19%.

And any reduction in beef and lamb products could lead to a rise in the consumption of plant-based food, as well as the eating of chicken and pork.

Ministers have also called for a reduction in red meat consumption.

The United Nations says that animal farming is responsible for 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse emissions.

That level of emissions makes farming a significant contributor to climate change. Of those emissions, 65% comes from beef and dairy cattle.

Combined with population growth and food fashions in the West, the environmental pressures from the food system could increase the impact of climate change.

Environmental groups backed the recommendations.

‘This is a wake-up call for a complacent government that we must completely transform the way we use land, to avoid climate breakdown and make space for nature,’ said Friends of the Earth campaigner Guy Shrubsole.