Some of the more polarised food-related climate arguments have got so fierce that they ’ re stopping traffic . In the UK in February , Animal Rebellion , an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion that later rechristened itself as Animal Rising , blockaded Westminster Bridge to demand the UK “ get out of its toxic relationship with animal farming and fishing and , instead , show commitment to tackling the climate and ecological emergencies with a plant-based food system ... in a nation of animal lovers it ’ s the only sensible choice .” announced farmers have protested furiously , blockading streets with tractors , insisting that no industry in Holland has done as much as they have to reduce emissions already . The situation is descending . Ministers in charge of the policy have received death threats , suicide rates among farmers have risen . Some have sympathy for the Dutch farmers who will see their lives ripped up to protect a far-flung future they won ’ t live to see . Others will support activists dedicated to preserving a future for generations to come .
A taste of what may be to come is going on in Holland , where the government plans to expropriate 3,000 farms to cut emissions .
Dutch farmers are famous for maximising every inch of farmland and de-
Deforestation still occurs . Intensive farming grows . Plastic remains in the oceans , now it ’ s in our stomachs
Dilemmas like these are difficult to digest , but the food and drink industry is munching on a plateful . Food and drink enables the world to eat , at the same time it ’ s chewing up the environment .
Intensive farming is ploying every technology available to more efficient and allows cheaper prices at the supermarket , and the impor- produce outsized yields , at one time becoming second only to the USA in tance of that in the current economic terms of food-related exports . But nitrogen emissions from animal waste and can also cause animals to suffer and
climate cannot be underestimated . It
fertilizer are now being targeted by the can be harmful to the environment . government with matching intensity as a result of the ‘ stikstofcrisis ’, and 3,000 For every angry vegan there is an angry farmer . For every person lament- farms with the highest levels of emissions look set to be shut down , compensated ing the fate of a dairy cow , someone by a government fund worth € 25bn . else is pouring milk on their cornflakes .
Plant-based activists claim if everyone At the time of writing , the plan has gained switched to a plant-based diet climate EU approval and will be finalised in the change may be reversed , meanwhile Mccoming weeks . But since the plan was Donald ’ s sells 75 burgers every second