The report published in The Lancet suggesting we scrap the vast majority of meat and milk production was just one more morale blow to farmers in a January that seems to be lasting 23 weeks.

Coming on the back of blanket media coverage of veganism (practised by 4% of the population – about as many as believe they have been abducted by aliens) and Leo Varadkar’s tone-deaf pronouncements as farmers brace themselves for the catastrophe that is Brexit, it is getting hard to keep the head up and be proud to be a food producer.

But farmers should remain proud of what they do. Feeding humanity is important work.

The Lancet, of course, is primarily a medical publication. Any doctor knows that radical treatment carries the risk of killing the patient while trying to cure them. Any evolution of the food supply of humanity must be incremental, because the supply-demand balance is so delicate.

At any given time, there is only enough food stockpiled to last about 100 days.

It’s another case of entitled billionaires telling the rest of us we need to make hard choices

The FAO estimates that global cereal demand for 2018-19 will be about 54m tonnes higher than production. Without meat and milk production on our grasslands, it will be difficult to maintain the balance. Ploughing that land would also release massive amounts of carbon, and probably lead to “dustbowl” desertification, as dangerous as deforestation.

Of course, if there are food shortages, I doubt any of the publishers – or readers – of The Lancet, are likely to go hungry.

That is certainly true of the founder of EAT, the charity that delivered the report in conjunction with The Lancet. While the Wellcome foundation financed the report, it is alleged that EAT hand-picked the scientists who wrote it. EAT was set up by Norwegian power-couple Petter and Gunhild Stordalen.

One of the stated aims of EAT is that “no one will be left behind” in its utopian vision.

That was certainly the case when its founders flew almost 400 guests 3,500 miles to their wedding in Morocco’s most expensive hotel. It cost €5m, but that’s their own business.

Entitled

What it cost in terms of carbon footprint is more telling. It’s another case of entitled billionaires telling the rest of us we need to make hard choices.

Meanwhile, Gunhild Stordalen has instagrammed herself tree-hugging in Costa Rica, meditating in Antibes, and holidaying in Mexico, all in the last year, and presumably travelling on the couple’s €20m private jet. Hypocrites.

I wouldn’t feel too guilty about the steak, or fry-up you are planning.