ANYONE who likes a steak but wonders if their menu choice is affecting the environment would welcome David Mason-Jones’ message.
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The journalist and author of Should meat be on the menu? spoke at the annual dinner of the NSW branch of the Australian Agricultural Institute in Orange last night.
Since the book was published in 2010, Mr Mason-Jones says he has noticed a growing willingness to recognise that livestock may be part of the environmental solution rather than the problem.
“A lot of people I’ve spoken to have intuitively felt that the propaganda against cattle is wrong but they haven’t taken the time to sit down and figure out why it was wrong,” he said.
“My attitude on hearing about methane is that if the CSIRO says it’s true, then it must be true.
“I didn’t set out to dispute the figures. But as a professional journalist I ended up coming up with the opposite conclusion,” he said.
Mr Mason-Jones’ book argues that livestock do not contribute to any net gain in global warming gases and can actually pay a role in sequestering carbon in the soil.
He said the message had been well-received.
“Most people, like myself, accept the initial proposition that’s been put to them on face value. We’re at a time when we need to question these things,” he said.
Mr Mason-Jones said many farmers were embracing new methods of sequestering carbon.
“I’m meeting a number of farmers who are proving hands down that this is a great way to go,” he said.
“A good farmer is actually an environmentalist. He’s more of an activist than a person who is sitting in the city complaining about the environment.
“In the city there’s a view that farmers are old-fashioned and almost negligent. In the country I think there’s a wide embrace of the new style of farmers”.