Livestock Industry (Climate Change)

I deliberately have not entered into the food-mile debate, because it is not possible to do so in the time available, but there is another debate to be had about food miles, and I support the idea that, wherever possible, people should buy food that is grown locally. It is complete madness that we import New Zealand lamb, for example, when we can get such meat much closer to home. On the solutions, I am sure that the Minister will be relieved to hear that I am not suggesting that we must go vegetarian or vegan to save the planet. However, Gidon Eshel and Pamela Martin, researchers from the university of Chicago, said that becoming a vegetarian does more to fight climate change than switching from a gas-guzzler to a hybrid car. The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also said:""If all families would just have one meatless day a week, this would have the same beneficial effect on greenhouse gas emission as taking almost one million cars off the roads for an entire year."" It would also be equivalent to replacing 1 billion light bulbs with energy saving bulbs.