Hannah Chapman is happy to bid January farewell if it means a break from hearing all about other people’s lifestyle choices.

USUALLY I’m a fan of January, with its slightly lighter nights, snowdrops peeping through the grass, and promise of spring to come – but this year, I’ll be glad to see the back of it.

January 2020 has been hijacked as ‘Veganuary’ by the anti-meat lobby like never before, and the mainstream media seem to have followed their lead. Quite frankly, I’ve had enough of it.

This month everywhere I go I’ve had veganism rammed down my throat like a particularly unwelcome portion of lentils. How farmers are destroying the planet. How eating red meat is bad for our health. How humans aren’t meant to be carnivores.

Every time I turn on the radio or TV, people are discussing how veganism can save humanity from the evil meat industry – usually with little balance from the other side of the argument.

One lowlight was being stuck in a confined space with a recently-converted non-meat eater who had given it up on the strength of watching one TV documentary.

The three farmers’ daughters in the area were particularly thrilled by the lecture on sustainable agriculture, based on information in the programme about the beef industry in the US.

Another – even worse – experience was hearing how a school in a rural village had presented an award to a pupil who has given up meat in order to ‘save the planet’.

Forgive me if things have changed since I was at school, but I thought the job of teachers was to challenge, and educate.

I have no problem with people making individual lifestyle choices about their diet – everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That’s why we live in a free country.

But that works both ways. As a contented meat eater, who buys from the local butcher, or is lucky enough to be able to get meat from the family farm, my view deserves as much respect as those who think otherwise.

When I argue that the debate is much more nuanced than meat = bad, vegan = good I should be heard as well, not shouted down by the other side.

Negative health impacts are one thing often cited in the meat debate – but not the benefits.

I, in common with many women my age, have trouble maintaining my iron levels. Eating red meat like beef and liver is one way of keeping myself healthy without resorting to dietary supplements with all their associated side-effects.

Yes, I eat plenty of leafy greens as well, but I’d have to eat a whole wheelbarrow full of them to get the same benefits as a few portions of liver. If I don’t, I end up a weaker, dozier specimen than usual.

Another thing that gets lost is the difference between agriculture in other countries and British farming.

When I’m told how the soybean industry of South America is destroying the rainforests because the product is in such demand to provide feed for mass-livestock operations, it’s difficult to make a case that that is not damaging to the environment. It clearly is.

But British farming, with its increasing focus on environmental sustainability, should not be lumped in as being one and the same.

Yes, we all share one planet, but don’t tell me that our family farm, with its woods, and hedgerows and streams, and wildlife, is killing the world. Don’t tell me that our 80-or-so dairy cows, which were grazed outdoors for nigh-on ten of the last 12 months, are to blame for climate change. Don’t tell me that our milk, going a few miles up the road to the local creamery, is the problem.

Not when people are commuting daily by aeroplane, or jetting off on five holidays a year, or happily eating highly processed veggie products with more air miles than Lewis Hamilton.

It’s a complex issue, and it is right there is a focus on what we can all do to promote more sustainable living. I’m happy to have that respectful debate with anyone, any time, but it has to be based on a fully rounded discussion, not picking and choosing the information which suits any one opinion.

Roll on February.