We should celebrate the great farming heritage of Yorkshire not make people feel guilty about their food choices - Yorkshire Post Letters

While everyone is entitled to their views, the author of the column ‘Plenty of vegan Christmas options in Yorkshire means there’s no excuse to not switch and save animals’ (The Yorkshire Post, December 15) has chosen the festive season to promote their personal beliefs and weaponised the Christmas dinner.

Instead of trying to make people feel guilty about their food choices, we should be using the region’s newspaper to celebrate the great farming heritage of Yorkshire.

Across the county our farmers will be working hard to produce the food for the festive table using standards of production that lead the world resulting in high-welfare meat and dairy.

A balanced diet is important and all food groups should be considered for their individual health benefits, rather than demonising meat or dairy products and telling people to remove them. What we eat is, and should remain, a personal choice.

Farms like mine in the South Pennines rely on being able to turn inedible grass into sustainable, quality beef and lamb. Remember, 65 per cent of UK farmland is best suited to growing grass and these areas, which are huge stores of carbon to reduce emissions, can’t be used for any other food production but they are great for producing high quality meat.

The independent Climate Change Committee recently showed that British beef and dairy produce half the carbon footprint of the global average. Here in Yorkshire, we are continually improving as we look to meet net zero ambitions.

Yorkshire farmers have always been, and will continue to be, the advocates of a healthy, balanced diet that includes dairy, meat, fruit and vegetables.

All we ask is that consumers are able to make their own individual choices based on the facts and not fiction.