The meat of the matter

The Great Plant-Based Con: Why eating a plants-only diet won’t improve your health or save the planet

Jayne Buxton (Piatkus, £25)

‘At most, 14.5% of global emissions come from farm livestock; in Britain, it is about 5.7%’

A RED line now divides us and it is drawn with the blood of farm animals. On the one side, there are omnivores/carnivores, on the other vegetarians/ vegans. If not yet as rancorous as Brexit, this political-cultural split may become the great matter of our times. Indeed, according to the environment writer and commentator George Monbiot, the farming of livestock will cause the end of times.

It’s the cows and sheep, you see. They take up land space and their methane burps warm the air space. In his recent, much-publicised book , Mr Monbiot declares the pasture-fed organic cow the ‘most damaging farm product’