'Attacks on red meat are making livestock farmers feel worthless' - NFU president

Myths

Ms Batters said the union was working to dispel myths around livestock farming, telling journalists UK beef production was 2.5 per cent more efficient than the rest of the world.

“Our diets might change here, but we are not going to deal with climate change if we just focus on our consumption of meat.

“It is about the sustainable production of plant-based food and meat,” she said, adding the UK should ‘take pride in its sustainable and high-quality livestock and dairy sectors’.

“There are a lot of challenges around processed, plant-based food, for example with palm oil and soya and we want to take people away from processed foods and towards a more natural, healthy balanced diet.”

Unfair

CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn said while other sectors faced similar criticism, some of the comments fielded at farmers were ‘deeply unfair’.

“We need to recognise that we have people running businesses, running farms who are bringing up their families and are feeling this very keenly,” she said.

“You have such an extraordinarily strong story to tell in farming and it is how you get the good news accelerating past the bad news in terms of everything you are doing, for example good stories around the horticulture revolution.”