WITH calls this week for us to all eat less meat to save the planet, furious livestock farmers have not been slow in hitting back at one of Britain's leading authorities on climate change.

Lord Stern suggested that livestock, particularly meat, creates lots of greenhouse gases and we would all be far better on a vegetarian diet.

He has been meddling in this subject for some time and has certainly raised the subject of whether we farm animals to produce food.

There is a big argument raging as to just how much damage the gases that cattle produce in the form of passing wind is causing to the environment.

With 60 per cent of the land mass of the UK growing grass, that in itself is supposed to stabilise and neutralise the effect that the wind from our farm animals produces – this sounds to me like a load of hot air.

I find it a bit sad that nowadays it is popular to attack farmers and farming for what is wrong with society at large.

I would certainly never deny that the domestic animals we farm today do produce their share of methane gasses.

But we never mention the binge drinking, over-eating and wasting of food which must add more than its fair share to our carbon footprint.

Next time you see streets full of drunken people – who apparently fill our city centres most nights of the week – and folk stuffing their faces with twice as much grub as they need, just think of the gases they are producing, and don't just blame the cows.