where's the beef?

Recent agricultural headlines were rather stark with the news of 200,000 cattle to be culled as part of the strategy to reduce emissions in Ireland. Headlines don’t refuse ink of course and while there is no definitive decision yet at policy level to follow through the topic generated considerable conversation worldwide. Elon Musk even contributed to the conversation with his “killing some cows doesn’t matter for climate change”.  Culling herds to meet targets of value does stir up a passion though of sorts and I am pondering it a lot. Reducing our access to real food directly and indirectly is the threat that hangs in the ether. Ah sure can’t we get used to the fake stuff…didn’t we buy in to the margarine story easily… all we need is a 3D printer for the artificial meat version. There are shadows of the “let them eat cake” scenario I fear… and we all know how that turned out. 

Anne Maher