Should we continue to eat meat?

Must we all go vegan to save the planet or is it OK to eat meat as a treat?
 
This New Year for the first time I came across the word Veganuary and wondered what it was so I searched and discovered that it is a month-long vegan pledge to not eat meat each January.   The Veganuary organisation encourages people to go vegan for the month of January as a way to promote and educate about a vegan lifestyle.   https://uk.veganuary.com 
 
The UK Vegan Society is an official Veganuary partner and on their website are interesting articles  about how choosing to adopt an increasingly plant-based diet can help the environment. It has been campaigning for politicians to recognise the contribution veganism might make in tackling the climate crisis - https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/environment  and
https://www.vegansociety.com/take-action/campaigns/climate-emergency
 
There are also many more vegan recipies appearing in newspapers and magazines and television and radio features about the issue as well. The more I hear and research about the issue of Meat, Livestock and Climate Change and the more I find that things are not black and white.  It’s a complicated and complex topic. 
 
I agree with arguments made that the planet cannot support current levels of meat eating alongside all the other climate changes already evident because of the use of fossil fuels and as counties develop more meat is eaten. Recent reports have said that there is likely to be demand for an 80% increase in meat production as a consequence of development.
 
A case can be made that grass fed livestock does have a place in agriculture, especially in UK as it is appropriate for our climate.  Many experts say that the conversion of rainforest to pasture vastly reduces the planet’s carbon sink potential and should be halted.  Rewilding pasture to forest would help as a forest ecosystem can lock up the same level of carbon as well managed pasture but ploughing poor soil and slopes can damage soil structures and risk run off and loss of nutrients via soil erosion
 
The UK National Farmers Union argues that livestock contributes to soil fertility and that grassland and pasture are good for wildlife. Good grassland cover actually captures more carbon than poor agriculture. UK dairy cows are more efficient than others in emitting less methane and the NFU suggests that there is scope to improve the climate credentials of all cattle worldwide.
https://www.nfuonline.com/news/latest-news-rh-panel/nfu-reports/
 
On reflection I am happy to reduce my meat consumption but I am not yet ready to give it up completely. I do think that food production should be sustainable and locally grown and that we should pay the true cost of production for food.  Fellow BFWI Climate Ambassadors Cath and Rebecca have chosen to eat a plant based diet for the benefit of the planet and in December gave a public cookery demonstration of their festive vegan fusion recipe.
 
The BFWI Investigation and discovery Day on 10 March heard Dr Ceris Jones, the National Farmers Union Adviser on Climate Change who told us about the NFU’s ambitious goal to aim for net zero greenhouse emissions from agriculture by 2040.
 
Yvonne for the BFWI Climate Ambassadors