Climate & Environment

Twitter not ‘appropriate forum’ for ‘complex’ debate on meat consumption - EPA chief

Laura Burke says that while a more ‘considered’ debate is to be had, Irish agri-food growth has come at ‘expense of the environment’

Laura Burke, EPA director general: “To reduce this complex debate to a single tweet would diminish the seriousness of the discussion we need to have.” Picture: Maura Hickey

The decision to remove a tweet encouraging people to reduce their meat intake was taken to allow for a “considered debate of the issue” in a more “appropriate forum”, Laura Burke, the director general of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said.

However, speaking to the Business Post, Burke also said that growth in Ireland’s agri-food sector had been happening at the “expense of the environment” in recent years, and that Ireland’s reputation as a ...