food matters

The Government's Food Matters report released earlier this week highlights evidence that a vegetarian/vegan diet is healthier for our bodies and better for the planet too according to The Vegetarian Society. It draws on the fact that livestock farming is responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. News is welcomed by the Vegetarian Society but Chief Executive Annette Pinner says the next step is making consumer aware of the correlation between increased greenhouse gases and the meat industry. She says, "We now need to ensure that meat and dairy reduction are part of a co-ordinated strategy to reduce our carbon emissions, individually and globally." However, elsewhere in the report the World Bank recommends that meat production increase by 80% by 2030 to feeding a growing global population. Food wastage issues were also raised, the average family throws away one third of the food bought, costing £420 a year, and we grow only half the food that we eat in this country. I wonder whether it is possible to move from this current black and white, and frankly dull, thinking concerning statistics and projections to the utopian vision shared by so many greenies and permaculturalists of a fun, real and very involved method of localised food production?