including meat, this was a statement made by Ken Clarke on BBC Radio 4′s ANY QUESTIONS  dated 30/10/09 Listen at 40 minutes.

A question was  put to the panel by a member of the audience as a result of Lord Stern’s report regarding climate change The Times has quoted Lord Stern as advocating for a vegetarian diet due to the level of carbon is produced during the production of meat, as well as the amount of water that goes into meat production. This issue was raised as part of George Alagiah’s programme the FUTURE OF FOOD .

According to Ken Clarke it is right to think about climate change and make adjustments elsewhere but not by meat reduction nor become a vegetarian. Like Ken Clarke I am unlikely to become vegetarian but have reduced my meat in take due to fears of high cholesterol a point raised by the Spanish MEP on the panel.

That said I could not help but wonder, whether Ken Clarke had somewhat been flippant in his response! Is it double standards on my part since I eat meat too? Perhaps! I felt that he could have chosen better examples of steps he takes in his daily life to address climate change as someone in public life and certainly his opening remark (the heading of this blog) will not endear him to tree huggers.

Incidentally when I listened to the programme that followed ANY ANSWERS, it transpired that I was not alone in my views that Ken Clarke had been flippant in his remarks. We do have a dilemma on our hand though. As humans we were never meant to be purely vegetarians, so what do we do about climate change as an effect of our meat eating?

What about the food crisis elsewhere? Should we be cutting down whole forests in order to provide animal feeds whilst folk elsewhere in the world are dying of hunger?

What do you think?