Let’s be honest, if we are going to tackle climate change sensibly, we should start with travel emissions, fossil fuels, food waste or technology.

But the political reality is this: Who is willing to have their movements restricted?

Limit people to two flights a year? Have their mileage monitored? Tell them what they can and cannot buy, or how to use artificial intelligence (AI)?

Who is going to buy into that?

Policies which directly restrict personal freedoms are unlikely to win public support.

Cutting our food waste is essential for tackling climate change

Reducing fossil fuel use requires huge change and long-term infrastructure investment.

Cutting food waste is essential, yet incredibly difficult to enforce at scale.

And slowing the growth of technologies like AI may reduce energy demand, but it is economically inconvenient and deeply unpopular.

Remember, leaders are taking part in an urgent race to net-zero.

So, instead of confronting the most politically sensitive issues attention shifted and, somehow, cows became the headline.

Please don’t blame the cows

The real challenge now is public perception. A growing portion of the public believes cattle are a major negative force in climate change.

And who can blame them? Large, well-funded campaigns have successfully delivered that message, repeatedly and loudly.

Yes, cows contribute to greenhouse gas emissions but that doesn’t capture the full story.

These gases are........

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