Herefordshire must decide how best to use land freed up by having fewer cows and sheep.

This was the message to the county’s new Climate Change Assembly from one of a series of expert briefings during its first month of sitting.

Andrew Prentis, an environmental and sustainability consultant and former vet, said that farming is responsible for nearly two-thirds of Herefordshire’s greenhouse gas emissions, much of that in the form of methane and nitrous oxide rather than carbon dioxide.

But meat consumption in the UK has already dropped 17 per cent over the last 10 years, Mr Prentis said, while the National Food Strategy, prepared for the Government last year, says meat consumption should reduce by another 30 per cent in the decade ahead.

“These are huge changes in our national diet that will inevitably have a huge impact on Herefordshire – the demand for pasture could reduce by as much as 35 per cent,” he said.

Under such a scenario, the area under pasture could drop from half the county in 2007 to just 30 per cent by 2030.

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“We could therefore produce much more crops instead,” Mr Prentis said.

“But if we were continue to produce the same amount of crops, then suddenly we have a big chunk of land that we could put trees on, rewild, or cover in photovoltaic cells.”

Putting trees on this freed-up land could bring a 60 per cent drop in Herefordshire farming’s carbon footprint, he pointed out.

The post-Brexit winding down of production subsidies to farms has already begun and will be complete by 2027, to be replaced by environmental land management schemes.

On top of this, the “stranglehold” of supermarkets on food supply “puts farmers in a worse position” as they cannot expect to earn any more from the produce they sell, he said.

The first six sessions of the Herefordshire Citizens' Climate Assembly are being held remotely this month.

Made up 48 randomly selected members of the public, the assembly will make recommendations on the council’s policy and spending priorities as it strives to become a zero-carbon, nature-rich county by 2030.