LETTERS... to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I respond to your brief report on views at the UN COP27 Climate Change conference for the world to move away from meat and dairy towards a more plant based diet. Such advocacy has stolen a march, quite comprehensively, influencing opinions at every level.

But food choice is a privilege. Those with the means to push away nutritious food, like meat, should not create policies limiting access to nutrients in meat, a culturally appropriate food for many. This is moral and cultural imperialism.

It is wrong to shame people who are buying meat and dairy to feed their families as they have critical nutritional benefits:

1. Worldwide, 1 in 2 children and 2 in 3 women have at least one micronutrient deficiency, upsetting immune systems, hindering growth and development, and limiting human potential.

2. Top deficiencies are iron, zinc, folate, vitamin A, vitamin D, and B12. Up to 40% of children have multiple deficiencies. Animal-sourced foods are the only, or best, source of the above (except folate, in lentils too).

3. Deficiencies are not limited to low- and middle-income countries. Iron deficiency affects 1 in 5 women in the USA.

4. Climate friendly diets need to consider not just emissions but nutritional value per serving (not per calorie). A further shift from meat will do more harm, especially to women and children.

Dear Editor,

5. No experimental studies show meat harms health, only associations. Typical meat eaters have other unhealthy behaviours, like smoking and drinking. Allowing for those, red meat has not been found to cause ill health.

6. For processed meat, the science is also not significant. The overall risk of getting colon cancer is 5.6% and eating five slices of bacon daily for life would only raise this to 6.6% - not statistically significant.

7. Only one study looks at meat v less meat. It was done in Kenyan school children and showed adding meat increased academic scores, physical ability and behaviour.

8. Livestock can “up-cycle” nutrient poor food (grass, food scraps, waste from the plant-protein industry, grains of varying quality) into protein, iron, B12, and other critical nutrients – a net win for our food system.

9. Livestock are less susceptible to drought or extreme weather.

10. Most of the world’s agricultural land is too dry, brittle, or rocky to crop. Livestock thrive on marginal land.

Best regards,

Bill

Clarke, Trewithen Dairy Cornwall

It’s time to destroy the Methane Myth. Along with dogs COWS are mankind’s oldest friends. Their symbiotic relationship has produced great benefits, yet current hype and hysteria suggests we should all become vegetarian.

Hunter gatherers turned to farming hundreds of generations ago and acquired domesticated cattle for their new farmlands. Tribes globally have always had meat as an essential part of their diet. And grassland is the best way of recycling carbon – continuously.

So where does methane fit? It is a flow gas, which remains in the lower troposphere (10km above earth) for up to 10 years and is almost certainly in equilibrium. So the ‘problem’ is of vanishing importance.

Recent multi-year research from Munich University suggests methane emissions from ruminants has been overstated by three or even four times.

To update Mark Twain and Churchill: there are lies, damned lies, statistics and now computer models. Delusional thinking must not dictate public policies that threaten to upend western values and civilization. Cows should rule, OK?

Geordie Burnett Stuart, Mixed farmer & Club member Aberdeenshire

New Theatre Shows For 2023 Exhibitions

Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance

V & A Museum, 11th February – 11th June

The first major UK exhibition to explore the exceptional talents of the Renaissance master Donatello, arguably the greatest sculptor of all time.

Faithful and Fearless: Portraits of Dogs from Gainsborough to Hockney

The Wallace Collection, 29th March – 15th October

Who doesn’t love man’s best friend? This new exhibition explores our devotion to four-legged friends across the centuries.

After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art

National Gallery, 25th March – 13th August

Explore a period of great upheaval when artists broke with established tradition and laid the foundations for the art of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Orchids Inspired by the Beauty of Cameroon

Kew Gardens, 4th February – 5th March

The much-loved annual orchid festival is back, bigger and better than ever.

If I can book any of the above or any other aspect of your visit to the Club over the next couple of months please contact me via memexpmanager@thefarmersclub.com

The Great British Bake-Off Musical

Noël Coward Theatre, 25th February – 13th May

Dramatizes the much-loved television series

Mrs Doubtfire

Shaftesbury Theatre, 12th May – 13th January 2024

New comedy musical Mrs Doubtfire, based on the iconic movie, which starred the late Robin Williams.

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons

Harold Pinter Theatre, 18th January – 18th March

Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who, Victoria) and Aidan Turner (Poldark) will star in Sam Steiner’s play, which is billed as a love story that will leave you speechless.

The SpongeBob Musical

Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, 26th July – 27th August

One for the children, head to Bikini Bottom and visit the coolest pineapple under the sea (apparently the reference will make more sense if you’re under 16).

OKLAHOMA!

Wyndham’s Theatre, 16th February – 2nd September

It tells the story of a community banding together against an outsider, and the frontier life that shaped America.

Guys & Dolls

Bridge Theatre, from 27th February

Craig Godfrey Member Experience Manager The Membership Experience Department

Admittedly a returning show, but expect to be thrown into the music like never before. The immersive adaptation will allow audiences to join the characters throughout the show.