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Ben Goldsmith said sheep should not be subsidized, tweeting: 'Sheep must go. Animals are 'the main obstacle to meaningful restoration of nature in UK national parks' A former adviser to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has sparked anger after saying sheep "have to go" from the UK's hills.
Ben Goldsmith, brother of former Tory MP Zac Goldsmith, said animals are "the biggest obstacle to a meaningful restoration of nature in Britain's national parks and other deprived agricultural landscapes."
Goldsmith, 42, believes sheep should not receive subsidies, saying the UK is "depleted of wildflowers, bird songs, wildlife" due to the "forensic grazing of tens of millions of sheep".
Ben Goldsmith says he no longer buys mutton or mutton
"The sheep must go," he said in a tweet that sparked backlash on Tuesday.
The animals are responsible for opposing the reintroduction of lynxes and wolves, he also claimed.
"Sheep have a brutal impact on the hydrology of our landscapes, compacting soil and suppressing vegetation, making soil erosion, flooding, and seasonal droughts more frequent and increasingly severe and costly. billions nationally each year," he wrote.
“Sheep are not native to Britain. They come from the arid hills of Asia Minor. They must suffer terribly soaked and exposed on our wet and windy slopes all year long. The fact that even English acorns are poisonous to sheep says a lot.
The number of sheep and lambs in England increased by 2% to almost 15 million in 2022, according to government statistics.
The post divided opinion, with one Twitter user responding: "That's a bunch of bullshit. The farm story wouldn't agree with you." Another user described the post as "very out of place."
"The British certainly eat a lot of lamb!" another answered. “Having come from the Lake District and being a frequent visitor to Wales, I can attest to the fact that meat and wool are not only crucial to the local economy, but are also in high demand by both locals and of the visitors”.
Goldsmith responded to the backlash to her initial post, later tweeting: "I don't want to criticize or offend anyone. I certainly don't mean to say that no one should be told how to cultivate or not cultivate.
“I am simply saying that public money must be exchanged for the public good. And I don't see much public interest in raising sheep. Indigenous ranching, on the other hand, provides multiple public goods.
Mr Goldsmith, CEO of investment firm Menhaden, also said: “The British don't eat much mutton or mutton. So why are our landscapes littered with sheep? ".
He said sheep farming is, in economic terms, "hopelessly unsustainable" and "supported only by taxpayer subsidies."
Mr Goldsmith said he no longer buys mutton or mutton, saying: “It's not good. If people want to keep sheep, of course that is their absolute right, but they should not be subsidized with public funds to do so.
He called the importance of sheep farming for national food security "nonsense".
"There is a strong case to be made to suggest that, taking into account winter feeding and the negative hydrological impact on the more productive farmland further down the watershed, much of the sheep farming is likely to be negative in terms of actual food production," he said. .
Annual per capita consumption of lamb in the UK is 4.7kg, according to the OECD/FAO Agricultural Outlook 2016, compared to the largest per capita consumer, Mongolia, at 45.1kg.
Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images
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