Eblex takes BBC to task over ‘soapbox’ climate coverage

The meat industry body criticised a recent report by vegetarian Lucy Siegle on The One Show which investigated whether stopping eating meat could help prevent the planet from warming up. Eblex labelled it “an ill-informed piece... containing a raft of sweeping generalisations and inaccuracies”.

Chairman John Cross said the result was “a soapbox for the vegetarian lobby, laying the blame for global warming firmly at the door of domestic agriculture”.

The BBC defended the film, which it said was designed to stimulate debate. Said a spokeswoman: “The One Show has not adopted any policy of encouraging people to eat less meat, far from it. The film was clearly signposted as a co-authored conversation between the show’s resident vegetarian Lucy Siegle, and the food critic and robust meat eater Charles Campion. This could not have been more clearly emphasised – in its introduction and in the tone of the film itself.

“In the studio discussion afterwards, Lucy was ribbed mercilessly by three meat-eaters who all argued that vegetarianism was not in itself a solution to the greenhouse gas problem. In discussion terms, any suggestion her contribution went unchallenged just doesn’t square with the facts.”

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