EPA’s deleted tweet on red meat

More appropriate forums

Sir, – “Why did the EPA delete a tweet about eating red meat?” (Analysis, September 7th) incorrectly suggests reasons as to why the Environmental Protection Agency removed a social media post.

The EPA has highlighted repeatedly that economic growth in the agri-food sector in recent years is happening at the expense of the environment. EPA reports indicate that Ireland’s reputation as a food producer with a low environmental footprint continues to be at risk of being irreversibly damaged. For agriculture to be environmentally sustainable requires a sector that produces food with a low environmental footprint and can validate this effectively.

In this context, to reduce this very serious debate to a single tweet would diminish the seriousness of the discussion we need to have.

For that reason, we believed it better to remove the tweet, and allow more considered debate of the issue to happen in more appropriate forums. – Yours, etc,

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GERARD O’LEARY,

Deputy Director General,

Environmental Protection Agency,

Dublin 14.