FORMER BEATLE Paul McCartney, who took his campaign to encourage people to stop eating meat for one day a week to the European Parliament, has fallen foul of Irish farmers and politicians.
McCartney, who believes such a move would protect the world from climate change, was accused by Irish Farmers’ Association president Pádraig Walshe of leading a “flawed campaign against meat” which was contradictory on climate change.
Mr Walshe, who is also president of Copa, the European farm organisation, said sustainable and environmentally friendly grass-based beef production from Ireland, Britain and other EU countries was being replaced on the EU market with Brazilian beef, most of which was coming from chopped down Amazon rainforest areas.
Mr Walshe said that in recent years, Brazil has cut down Amazon rainforest areas the size of Belgium to meet beef export demand from Europe and other areas.
He added that cattle numbers in the EU were already down 25 per cent since 1990. EU beef production was falling and the deficit was being filled with imported beef from South America – mainly Brazil.
“Instead of campaigning MEPs to reduce the livestock herd in Europe, Paul McCartney should be lobbying to safeguard grass-based beef production here,” he said. “This policy will halt the destruction of the rainforest and do much more for climate change than his campaign to impose vegetarianism on the world,” he said.
Ireland East MEP Maireád McGuinness said single issues such as vegetarianism served up as a solution to climate change, discredit efforts to tackle what is a real global issue. “Getting rid of livestock from the planet as a solution to climate change is too far-fetched and unrealistic a proposition to be credible,” she said.
Calling for a “meat free Monday” would be a waste of food for those who normally used the leftovers from the Sunday roast, she said.