Letters: Three meat meals a day no longer the norm

It's no longer the norm to have meat with every meal, says a reader. Photo / File

There is a concern among farmers that the school climate change curriculum encourages children to eat less meat.

Farmers feel unfairly singled out as in New Zealand stock numbers and the emissions from stock are static.

I'm a beef farmer but am not concerned and won't sign the petition to have the meat reference removed from the curriculum.

I already eat meat less than three times a week whereas 30 years ago families regularly ate meat three times a day; bacon or sausages for breakfast, meat sandwiches for lunch and meat casseroles, rissoles, chops, roasts or steak at night.

Our diets have changed, low-income families can no longer afford meat, and ethnic and meatless meals are common.

If children decide to consume less meat it will enable New Zealand farmers to feed more of the world's population, which is increasing by 80 million people each year.

It will give scientists more time to devise a diet plan that can feed 10 billion people by 2050.

It could save forests around the world from being destroyed to make way for agriculture and save threatened wildlife from extinction. It is easy to eat less meat.

I hope the climate change curriculum also talks about tourism, air travel and vehicles which are set to increase four-fold the world's CO2 emissions by 2050.

If we are really serious about the climate crisis we need to do a lot more than reduce our meat intakes.

Patricia Hosking
Rotorua

Children will inherit the earth

Apparently the meat industry is getting its knickers in a twist because school kids are going to be taught about climate change. More precisely, how going vegetarian will help the planet.

Isn't it this kind of pushback by vested interests that, in my opinion, has got us into our present predicament?

The industry needs to get real or get gone.

After all it is children who will inherit the earth, not a bunch of disgruntled businessmen.

Lesley Haddon
Rotorua