Lord Deben:

We have to accept that some circles cannot be squared. We are, for health reasons as well as climate change-related reasons, going to have to eat less meat. The way to do that is to cut out the meat that is produced in the least climate-friendly way, which will mean emphasising the meat that Ireland is best at producing. Ireland is the best at extensive meat production and that is why people buy Irish beef. They do not buy it because the cattle are fed on beef lots but do so because they are fed in a traditional way.

One of the questions was about food prices. All of us have lived our entire lives with food prices coming down and none of us can remember a time food prices went up. It is only very recently that we have begun to see a slight change. Politicians have, in a sense, promised that prices will always go down but I am afraid to say that they will not, not just because of climate change but because there will be some 1 billion more middle-class people in the world by 2030, all of whom will have the opportunity to buy food for more than subsistence.

The pressures on food are going to be considerably greater and members of the committee will be aware of the damage that has been done to our food industry. I sit on the food and drink sector council in the United Kingdom and I am a passionate supporter of the food industry. I suggest people look at the damage done to the food industry by fraud. Fraud took place because people were trying to produce meat at an unacceptable price. We are going to have to talk truth. The truth is that if we grow food properly, it will not be as cheap as it was and the proportion of our incomes that we spend on food is not going to continue to fall. Whatever political party we belong to, we will not be able to solve that problem. Our job is to try to manage the transition to a situation in which food prices are more stable and people do not expect 14 meatballs for €2. This will mean helping the poorest and making sure farmers are incentivised. It also means reform of the CAP so that the money goes in the right ways, as opposed to some of the wrong ways. Above all, it means us telling the truth and we have not been prepared to do that.