'Stop eating meat' says Rajendra Pacchauri

Australian farmers and researchers say comments from one of the world's top scientists, that people should stop eating red meat, are misguided.

The chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Pacchauri says consumers must reject red meat, because methane emissions from beef and sheep are making a big contribution to climate change.

Australian scientists say food supplements and breeding could reduce livestock emissions in cattle by 30 per cent within a few years.

Melbourne University researcher Dr Richard Eckhart says Governments must wait for the science to catch up, before calling for people to stop eating meat.

"Not all the land that is currently under grazing is suitable for any other form of agriculture," he says.

"And so you can't have it both ways; you can't have a world which needs more food and then say we need to cut the emissions from food production."