Why wild venison is a climate-friendly swap for beef

In countries like Scotland where deer populations are culled, eating wild venison can be a low-carbon option.

My last meat feast was seven years ago. My parents ­were visiting me in London from Costa Rica and we spent the evening going through the brief but rich menu of a small steak restaurant. For them, it was their final meal before returning home; for me, a farewell to my most carnivorous days.

In the years since I’ve kept a diet of mostly vegetarian dishes, bits of seafood and the occasional exception. As this diet emerged from my work covering climate change, I pick and choose with that in mind: if an animal product is low carbon, like mussels, it will be on my plate regularly. Meat – a high-carbon food – features on my plate for special meals, like my mum’s pork leg for Christmas, or on the rare occasion I really crave something like the Costa Rican pork belly-based specialty chifrijo.

Each person has their own approach to climate-friendly food; mine is to reduce food-related emissions, not to have a perfect vegetarian scorecard.

Since I moved to Scotland a few years ago, a new wrinkle has appeared: venison – the meat from deer. Deer populations are out of hand here: the Scottish Government estimates that the overall population could be around one million, up from half a million in 1990. Deer are thriving, partly because humans eradicated their predators, such as wolves and lynx centuries ago.