UK consumers should eat more grass-fed beef and lamb and less chicken and pork, according to a new report by the Sustainable Food Trust.

The paper, titled 'Feeding Britain from the Ground Up', recommends cutting chemical inputs and animal feeds such as imported soya. This would mean Brits would end up eating 'much less chicken and pork' but more beef and lamb, as well as 'much more fruit and vegetables'.

Calling for the UK to stop importing protein to feed livestock and significantly cut the amount of cereals going into feed, the authors said this would see the chicken and pork sector reduce by 75%. They also suggested that food waste, crop waste and by-products be used to feed herds if pasture was not suitable.

The Trust’s report focuses on how to reduce the public’s appetite for foreign food, which currently provides almost half the diet in the country. While admitting that some imported food will still be needed, so people can have a balanced healthy diet, consumers must accept that the cheap chicken, dairy and pork of recent years would become a thing of the past.

Egg production would fall by 50%, dairy by 25% and potato production by 20%, it suggested, whilst there would be a doubling of beans, peas and fruits. There would be more rye and oats grown but overall cereal production would be halved as they recommended chemical fertilisers be eradicated and livestock be mostly grass-fed.

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The Trust also said it would restrict imports to come only from countries which grew produce to the same high environmental standards as the UK, to prevent farmers being undermined by cheaper imports, often produced to lower standards.

CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, Patrick Holden, said: "We can either double down on industrial farming to produce food that is bad for our health, the environment and food security – or we can turn this crisis into an opportunity to accelerate more sustainable food and farming.

"We can all play a big role in driving the change that is urgently needed. If we want to eat sustainably, we should eat the foods that can be grown in harmony with nature across the UK.

"As consumers and citizens, changing our diets could be one of the most important actions we take to address the threats of climate change, nature loss and damage to public health, and support farmers to transform the way they farm.”