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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
John Vidal

Farmers' flak for veggie minister

Jim Fitzpatrick, a fierce opponent of hunting, is now the farming minister. This is causing much mirth and tooth-sucking among livestock farmers because he is a vegetarian and so is his boss, the environment secretary, Hilary Benn.

How fitting then that within hours of his appointment as the 12th farming minister in 11 years, some of the world's leading cancer specialists should report that if we all were to eat less processed meat we would we could stop the deaths of 3,700 people a year from developing bowel cancer.

Jim would do well to remember the fate of his Welsh counterpart, Christine Gwyther, another veggie farm minister, who took the Welsh farmers' flak for 15 months but was fired by Rhodri Morgan on the eve of the Royal Welsh show in 2000.

Thankfully for Jim, this year's Royal show is the very last.

• Please send your environmental news and gossip to john.vidal@theguardian.com

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