WHENEVER anyone says 80% they are usually making stuff up. That was the figure quoted by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) as the percentage of Scottish agricultural land not suitable for growing crops in your article about vegan diets (Fears that vegan diets will hurt livestock sector, April 19). The other numbers in the article are also likely bogus.
The survey was done by Censuswide, an organisation that does not belong to the British Polling Council and does not make full survey results available by default. So we don’t know the questions asked or the full methodology. Clearly the whole thing is marketing hype, but it is the job of QMS to market the meat industry so good on them.
READ MORE: Quality Meat Scotland clashes with vegans over nation's eating habits
Facts are another matter. Scotland could easily feed itself on plants alone. Humans need to eat about 2200 kcal a day on average and we have many crops that will provide us with this energy.
Take the potato. There are 770 kcals in a kilogram of potatoes, so 3kg will feed a person for a day and roughly one tonne for a year. There are 5.3 million people in Scotland and potato productivity is about 44 tonnes per hectare, so to feed the whole population in terms of calories would take about 125,000 hectares of arable land. That may sound a lot, but it is only 22% of the arable land in Scotland and only 2% of the total agricultural land.
More than 50% of cereals produced on Scottish farms are used for animal feed and only a little of the energy and protein in those cereals will be converted into meat, milk and eggs for our consumption. Most goes to keep the animal alive. Feeding it to humans directly would be far more efficient. Another huge proportion of cereal production goes to the drinks industry which again discards the fibre, protein and micronutrients before we drink it.
I’m not suggesting we live off potatoes and barley. Scotland could grow a variety of crops for direct human consumption and feed an entirely vegetarian population. They wouldn’t have to be teetotal either. I’m sure there would be enough capacity left to keep whisky production going.
So please don’t eat meat because you think it is good for you or you think it is your patriotic duty to keep farmers busy. Neither are true. It is all just marketing hype. Eat meat because you like it and be done with it. I’m off to destroy the motor industry now by walking to work.
Roger Hyam
Edinburgh
I EAGERLY await sight of the Vegan Society’s Dominika Piasecka “efficiently and directly” eating some grass leaves and heather shoots ... just as soon as she’s explained (a) how many hectares of Scotland are fit to produce soybeans and lentils; (b) what the country’s soybean and lentil crop was last year; (c) the carbon footprint of importing such meat substitute ingredients: and (d) the carbon footprint of ploughing up permanent pasture.
Cruel? Perhaps. Realistic? I think so. I agree that we should cause as little suffering as possible to the creatures we eat, or which we exploit (laying hens, milking cows), and minimise our consumption of the consequent foodstuffs to that end. But the idea that we should go completely vegan seems to disregard not only the welfare of our farming and crofting communities and how well they look after their livestock, but also the realities of Scotland’s environment.
Of course, there would be political benefits for some if Scotland was turned into a wildlife theme park incapable of feeding itself from its own resources!
Andrew McCracken
Grantown-on-Spey
I WAS pleased to read in Sunday National that Hamish MacQueen is alive and kicking, aged 92. I well remember Hamish when I was an activist in Glasgow Hillhead SNP in 1970s and 1980s. His mantra was “Buy Scottish goods and keep a Scottish worker working”. I have always since tried to follow that advice. We need to be doing this even more at this time.
Maggie Miller (Morrison)
via email
WHAT a lot of nonsense for Glasgow saying the All Under One Banner march will be too big (Glasgow indy march could be ‘too big’, April 19).
Edinburgh’s population doubles during the festival each year and it copes (and makes a lot of income from it), yet it seems Glasgow can’t cope with a 16-17% increase for a few hours!!!
What’s more, Hampden in the olden days managed 150,000! It’s a joke that they say it’s going to be too big.
Kenneth Sutherland
via email
ED McCabe has got one thing wrong in his Saturday letter. Tobermory is a town and not a village. We had a town council and provost until organised out of existence by Strathclyde. It remains a town.
Bruce Blackadder
Tobermory
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