Your editorial on nature-friendly farming (12 August) rightly points out that reducing meat and dairy consumption is the most effective way to ensure food security while protecting nature and biodiversity and reducing emissions. There is ample evidence that more food can be produced on less land when people are fed directly from crops rather than livestock. What is missing so far is the leadership needed to make change happen. The Conservative government has failed to take up the National Food Strategy’s recommendation to reduce meat and dairy production by 30% by 2030, or the Climate Change Committee’s recommendation to reduce meat consumption by 35% by 2050. Congratulations to the communities, most recently Calderdale in West Yorkshire, who have passed motions to lead the way here.

There needs to be a shift away from the idea that meat dishes are the norm. If restaurants and cafes offer meals that are 50% plant-based, this could easily lead to a more sustainable diet. The emissions and environmental impact of food must be part of climate policy everywhere.
Linda Newbery
Barford St Michael, Oxfordshire

It is good to hear confirmation in Natural England’s latest report of what many farmers have already observed: that public funding of on-farm wildlife schemes increases numbers of butterflies, bats, bees and birds (Study: England’s nature-friendly farming schemes boost wildlife, 9 August). However, the continued success of these schemes, introduced over the last 25 years, is under serious threat.

First, the payments now offered under post-Brexit schemes are actually lower than they have been for the past 20 years and are unlikely to enable farmers to continue to deliver this public benefit. Second, the report estimates that agricultural food production will fall by 25% as land use changes from food production to wildlife habitat. And third, it is increasing regulation that is reducing the ability to control overpopulation of some very successful predators.
Richard Harvey
Owston, Leicestershire