Eating meat is not a crime against the planet-if it's done right

I have huge admiration for George Monbiot, a Guardian columnist. His work has highlighted the urgent need to reduce our CO2 emissions and switch to greener energy.

- Thomasina Miers

He has also shown intensive farming's role in the dramatic levels of species decline and biodiversity loss. Much of what he writes I wholeheartedly agree with - but when it comes to the solutions we need to change our farming and food systems, we have radically different takes.

It is indisputable that the farming "revolution" of the 1950s, with its widespread use of herbicides, pesticides and fungicides, has waged war on nature. These intensive, monocultural ways of producing food are not only contaminating our land and waterways, but are heating up our planet and contributing to a crisis in human health. The animals in factory farms don't have a great time either. The decline of insect life is incredibly worrying, and topsoils, which we use to grow 95% of the world's food, are depleting at an astonishing rate. We need to change the way we eat and produce food, and fast.