Switching to lab-grown foods 'is not the answer' to providing nutrition to a growing global population or addressing climate change, an industry body has said.
In the recently shown Apocalypse Cow programme, green campaigner George Monbiot proposes ending agriculture 'as we know it', turning vast tracts of land over to forestry.
The UK would instead move to emerging technologies such as creating protein from bacteria and producing lab-grown ‘meat’ from stem cells to produce food.
However, the programme has been criticised for providing an unrealistic remedy for climate change which is at odds with mainstream opinion.
The documentary focused on the food sector while neglecting the role of the largest producers of greenhouse gases, such as transport.
Responding to the Channel 4 programme, Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) said Monbiot’s proposal is 'unlikely to be an effective response' to climate change and the challenge of feeding a growing population.
The body's chief executive, Gwyn Howells said: “I doubt that many people will share the presenter’s enthusiasm for switching to processed foods mass-produced from bacteria and stem cells in laboratories.
“The programme also failed to question the wildly optimistic claims that are made about the potential of this technology, its cost, how much energy it would consume, and how quickly and safely it could be developed.”
He said the programme took aim at the 'wrong target', namely agriculture, which produces fewer emissions than transport, industry and energy generation.
Mr Howells continued: “Wholesale re-forestation of productive agricultural land is questionable according to international studies such as the IPCC Climate Change and Land report, which warn that such a response risks global food security, and urges governments to take advantage of the potential of grassland to sequester carbon as reforestation could take decades to produce net benefits.
“Sustainable forms of agriculture offer more immediate and realistic solutions to mitigating climate change.
“Wales, with its overwhelmingly non-intensive, grass-fed beef and sheep sector, is ready to lead the way in responsible and sustainable farming,” he said.
