England's National Food Strategy Calls for a 30% Cut in Meat Eating

England should cut meat consumption by 30% over the next decade, says the government-commissioned National Food Strategy published today. By 2032 the review also wants fruit and vegetable consumption up 30%, fiber up 50%, and foods high in saturated fat, salt and sugar down 25%.

The independent review, led by restaurateur Henry Dimbleby, was commissioned by the government to plan the future of the food system. Its 288-page final report argues the cuts are needed to meet the country's targets on health, climate and nature, Farmers Weekly reports.

The numbers are stark: 85% of the farmland that feeds the UK is used to rear animals, but it provides only 32% of our calories, Which? notes. Eating a third less meat and dairy would let the least productive 20% of farmland return to woodland, wild pasture and peat bogs, at a cost of only around 3% of the calories we produce, the report argues.

Careful livestock farming can be a boon to the environment, but our current appetite for meat is unsustainable: 85% of farmland is used to feed livestock. We need some of that land back.

That is Dimbleby writing in the executive summary. The report also backs a "protein transition" toward plant proteins and meat-free alternatives.

It follows the EAT-Lancet scientists' call to halve red meat and February's UN-backed report naming food as the main driver of biodiversity loss.

More beans, more veg and more nature: that is a plan worth getting behind.