Deer management and sustainable food linked in Commons debate

Business in the House of Commons concludes each day with an Adjournment Debate, a relatively brief exchange of speeches between a backbench MP and a Minister, and the topic on Thursday 02 December was wild deer management and sustainable food. Sir Charles Walker MP (Broxbourne, Con) introduced it making note of his role as unpaid Chairman of the Country Food Trust, a charity that works to supply protein-rich game meat in the form of ready meals to foodbanks, supplementing the starchy foods that are more commonly offered.

After introducing the work of the charity Sir Charles turned to the importance of deer management:

"At around 2 million animals, the UK's deer population is estimated to stand now at its highest level for 1,000 years; there are more deer now than when William the Conqueror arrived. Our immense national herd keeps on growing. To put that in context, to keep it stable at 2 million, we would need to cull between 500,000 and 750,000 deer each year—that is just to keep things stable. At present, however, we are culling only about 350,000 animals, so each year the national herd keeps growing, and more trees and crops are nibbled away."

He argued that a broad consensus now exists between farmers, conservationists and environmentalists on the need for a structured national deer cull, noting supporting evidence from the Woodland Trust, the Forestry Commission and the British Trust for Ornithology. On his analysis, the major barrier to such a cull is the absence of a culture of venison-eating in the UK, which limits the opportunity for marketing the additional meat it would produce.

The Countryside Alliance has for a long time been vocal on the value of venison to the national diet and in promoting its consumption. Regularly we distribute recipes, editorials and parliamentary briefings linking its benefits as a nutritious food for consumers with the necessity of controlling deer populations. Replacing intensively farmed meat with local venison in the diet benefits both the environment, by reducing carbon emissions, and public health because venison is low in saturated fat and high in vitamins and minerals. We have also highlighted, in recent media interviews defending against ideologically motivated attacks on meat consumption, the positive contrast between the sustainability of venison and crops such as quinoa, whose production has led to deforestation in the developing world.

The work has had a practical side, too: working with our sector partners through British Game Assurance, we have arranged a project that will see game meat rolled out as meal options potentially to all 223 NHS Trusts in England. In the context of the Government Food Strategy we are campaigning for more positive decisions to procure venison to be made across the public sector. For policymakers, promoting venison and encouraging an increase in the UK deer cull should be a straightforward and wholly positive policy.

In response, Defra Minister Trudy Harrison acknowledged the Government's ambition for the UK to have a sustainable protein sector and the importance of managing deer populations at sustainable levels, given that they have "dramatically increased over the last century". Highlighting existing proposals to develop the venison supply chain and promote the market, she pointed out that the Government had last year also launched the first deer management incentive payments in addition to existing woodland improvement grants. She concluded:

"As has been set out, it is important to ensure not only the health and wellbeing of our forestry and the deer themselves, but that this versatile, sustainable, increasingly available, nutritious and tasty meat is brought to our plates while our native and iconic deer species thrive."

These are objectives for which the Countryside Alliance will continue forcefully to campaign.

To support our work campaigning for a sustainable deer population and food supply, please consider joining the Countryside Alliance today.