The former Environment Secretary, George Eustice, has told 8.9ha TV News of a “big debate raging in Defra.”
Mr Eustice said “There’s a school of thought from some scientists that if you want to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions and help the planet then you basically need to have livestock that are reared very intensively and killed as quickly as possible so that they emit less methane.
“I have to say that I never found that a very endearing vision for agriculture and I had a different view which is that we have to allow the cycle of life to complete and that means embracing more regenerative, perhaps more extensive forms of livestock agriculture where we perhaps go back to breeds and genetic traits that lends themselves to pasture-based livestock production with less intensive inputs from manufactured feeds and much more ability to turn grass into meat.
“If you can do that then you can get your herbal leys and livestock back on the lowlands and get proper rotation on soil again, all of which is quite crucial to our endeavour to see a recovery in nature and biodiversity.
“It’s a big debate that’s going on. I know where I stand on that – no we shouldn’t be having ever-more intensive systems and trying to kill animals as quickly as possible – we actually should go back to something more extensive and pasture-based livestock I think has got a really important role to deliver some of our environmental outcomes.”