Here’s a sobering fact: over the past half-century, we’ve steadily marched – or perhaps sleepwalked – our planet to the brink of the “sixth mass extinction“. One-fifth of all mammal species are now threatened. What led us to this crisis point? In large part, our appetite for meat.

Sound far-fetched? Consider that in 2016, an area of rainforest the size of a hundred football pitches was cut down every hour – every hour! – specifically to provide the animals who end up on our dinner plates with pastureland.

Much of the deforested land that isn’t used for cattle-grazing is dedicated to growing soya beans – not for tofu or soya milk but rather to feed animals on farms around the globe. Indeed, 70…