A SUGGESTION that people should only eat meat on "high days and holidays" could undermine the rural economy, the Welsh Conservatives have said.

They criticised comments made by climate change minister Julie James, who said sustainable farming had an important role to play in environmental policy.

"People have to think about the way that they eat," James, a lifelong vegetarian, told a Walesonline interview.

"There is nothing wrong with eating meat but we just have to be eating it as a high days and holidays type of thing," she added.

There is evidence to support the minister's view, with the global meat industry linked to deforestation and biodiversity loss.

There's also a case for the inefficiency of meat production – according to environmental charity Greenpeace, it takes more farming resources to produce animal feed and rear livestock than to grow food directly for humans, and if everyone in the world switched to a plant-based diet, humans would need 75 per cent less farmland than we currently use.

MORE NEWS:

But the Tories said James' comments "show a complete lack of understanding of the importance of meat as part of a balanced diet and how it underpins our agricultural and rural economy".

Shadow rural affairs minister Sam Kurtz described farming as "the backbone of the Welsh economy" creating jobs through the food supply chain.

“Tackling climate change needs public support and economic sense," he added. "Understanding this and working with the sector and not against, is the only way positive progress can be made.”

This article originally appeared on our sister site The National.