14 quotes from shadow Defra secretary Kerry McCarthy

Shadow Defra secretary Kerry McCarthy has a long track record as an animal rights campaigner – and strong views when it comes to livestock farming.

A vegan for more than 20 years, she doesn’t eat meat and believes other people should cut down too.

See also: Shadow Defra secretary revealed as anti-meat campaigner

Here’s what she’s said in the past:

1. “Meat is murder… which means, I suppose, that milk must be manslaughter.”
Explaining why she doesn’t eat meat or consume dairy products
Blog: 14 July 2008

2: “Loaded with artery-clogging cholesterol and saturated fat, these products have been linked to cancer, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and obesity.”
Arguing that meat, eggs and dairy consumption causes “sky-rocketing” healthcare costs.
Blog: 17 June 2013

3. “I don’t think you have to be vegan to care about animal welfare, but I don’t have much time for the ‘happy meat’ marketing thing.”
Showing that meat is a hard sell
Blog comment: 4 January 2012

4. “Free range/organic is better than battery/factory-farmed, but being vegan is better than both.”
Outlining her views on animal welfare
Blog comment: 4 January 2012

5. “Local BBC wanted to film me in a butchers, asking if he’d vote for me. I didn’t play ball.”
Dismissing the idea that all publicity is good publicity
Twitter, 14 July 2012

6. “It sounds like a joke but flatulent and burping cows do have an impact on greenhouse gases.”
Suggesting that livestock farming contributes to global warming
Bristol Post, 25 March 2009

7. Farmers produce food, people in cities eat food. They’re as entitled to have a view on farming as the farmers themselves.
Arguing that Defra shouldn’t just be about producer interests
Blog: 19 January 2012

8. The choice basically narrows down to whether you want two or three orifices, and whether or not the sheep is wearing lipstick.
On her attempts to buy an inflatable sheep for a “farmers for Europe” stall
Blog: 12 July 2009

9. “It’s not as if holding a half-hour debate on the topic is suddenly going to put all the farmers out of business”
Asserting that she doesn’t understand why people get so hostile at the idea of veganism or vegetarianism.
Blog: 1 January 2012

10.  “It’s not multistorey – although many such farms are.”
Conceding she was “wrongly informed” when telling MPs that proposals for an 8,000-cow dairy farm would see animals “piled on top of one another” at Nocton, Lincolnshire.
Blog: 1 January 2012

11. “The dairy industry means artificially forcing loads more milk out of cows.”
On dairy farming.
Hansard, 1 November 2011: Column 896

12. “Hens are forced to lay 20 times as many eggs as is natural for them.”
On egg production
Hansard, 1 November 2011: Column 896

13. “The meat, dairy and egg industries cause immense suffering to more than a billion animals every year in the UK alone, most of whom spend their entire lives crammed inside dark, filthy sheds.”
Stating her opinion that the livestock sector is dirty and cruel
Blog: 17 June 2013

14. “I’m not sure I like the use of the word ‘talkative’ here – [it] makes it sound like I’m the kid in class who never shuts up.”
Responding to a newspaper article suggesting she was Bristol’s most talkative MP.
Facebook: 15 June 2015