Friends of the Earth, who are running campaign to address the impact of animal agriculture on the planet, named the Food Chain campaign, have responded to Lord Stern’s “go veg” message that hit the press yesterday.

Sir, Lord Stern of Brentford is right to highlight the meat and dairy industry’s vast and often-overlooked contribution to climate change, but by leaping to the conclusion that we should all go vegetarian, your reports didn’t address the urgent need for it to clean up its act to be part of our low-carbon future (“Climate chief: give up meat to save the planet,” Oct 27).

Cutting down on meat will clearly deliver a win-win for the health of people and the planet, but livestock is a vital part of many people’s diets and livelihoods around the world so we can’t simply scrap it.

At the moment the Government pumps millions of pounds of public money into factory farms and subsidises the use of imported animal feed that is grown after forests have been destroyed. Meanwhile, our own farming sector is in crisis with more than 4,000 job losses in the sector each year and farmers struggling to get a fair price from the supermarkets.

It is possible to farm meat and dairy without it trashing the planet — but we need urgent action to make this happen. The Government should be supporting planet-friendly farms and home-grown animal feeds and, ultimately, less but better meat and dairy. In the run-up to crucial UN climate talks this December, rich countries such as the UK must show real leadership — and fixing the food chain is an important part of this.

Clare Oxborrow
Friends of the Earth

Again the emphasis is on “home-grown animal feeds”. Again I ask, in land scarce UK, where will we find the land for this? At least they mention that we should eat less meat and dairy, but they seriously need to get over their fear of tackling the issue of consumption head on.