Killing the environment ought to be a crime on par with genocide, a radical British lawyer has said at the Labour Party conference, calling for meat and dairy be banned by law, just like smoking indoors.

“I think when we look at the damage eating meat is doing to the planet it is not preposterous to think that one day it will become illegal,” Michael Mansfield QC, a famed British barrister, said Monday in Brighton.

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“It is time for a new law on ecocide to go alongside genocide and the other crimes against humanity,” said Mansfield, a vegetarian himself, at the launch of Vegan Now campaign.

The 77-year-old argued that livestock farming is contributing to the destruction of the environment climate change, citing a recent UN report to back his claims.

“We know that the top 3,000 companies in the world are responsible for more than £1.5 trillion worth of damage to the environment, with meat and dairy production high on the list. We know that because the UN has told us so,” he said.

Mansfield, 77, was referring to the recent report by the World Resources Institute, in partnership with the UN Environment Programme, which urged drastic cuts in meat production and consumption to combat climate change.

Livestock farming is responsible for at least 14.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, just ahead of transportation’s 14 percent, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. One group of researchers has suggested widespread genetic modification to cows, to make them emit less methane from bodily functions, according to a recently published a study in Science Advances.

Climate activists in the West have called for a radical crackdown on emissions, including limiting or banning meat, in recent years. A faction of Democrats in the US, led by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) has proposed a ‘Green New Deal,’ though it has been met with ridicule and disdain.

Public reactions to Mansfield’s ideas have mostly been along the same lines.

“Insane. Absolutely insane. The apocalyptic doomsday cult of climate hysteria,” said one former parliamentarian.

Insane. Absolutely insane. The apocalyptic doomsday cult of climate hysteria is a huge threat to our economy, and to our society generally. https://t.co/FVFH650N7A — Roger Helmer (@RogerHelmerMEP) September 23, 2019

One woman called it a plot to ban meat for the proletariat while “the bourgeoisie tuck into their filet mignon.”

This agenda gets crazier and crazier by the day.Now eating meat is classed by a top barrister as a “crime against humanity”!?The objective must be to ban meat eating completely for the proletariat while the bourgeoisie tuck into their filet mignon.https://t.co/Qaab6uWca0 — Fiona Marie Flanagan (@fionamflanagan1) September 23, 2019

Eating meat is “natural and right,” another commenter chimed in.

Oh do bore off. Never going to happen pal. Eating meat is natural and a right. Can we just ban people calling for ridiculous bans. https://t.co/iEDD7UK1eH — Mo Metcalf-Fisher (@mometfisher) September 23, 2019

Banning Mansfield might be more popular, suggested another.

More people would agree with banning Mike Mansfield than would agree with banning meat. — Ben Pile (@clim8resistance) September 23, 2019

Even some climate activists disagreed, saying that imposing individual carbon budgets would be a better solution.

Its the wrong solution. We need to have individual carbon budgets, and its up to us how we spend them. We all need to reduce our carbon footprint, and reducing the amount of meat we eat is just one of the things we need to do. — Gary Williams (@GaryTomWilliams) September 23, 2019

UK National Farmers Union is arguing they can achieve climate-neutral farming by 2040, without cutting meat production or converting farmland into forests. A recently published plan lays out how eating meat and causing no harm for the planet is possible.

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