Britain’s Deer Problem: Can We Eat Our Way Out Of It?

Beyond the Hedge: The People and Stories that Shape the British Countryside

Patrick Galbraith shoots a Chinese water deer and learns about Britain’s growing deer problem. There are more deer in this country than there’ve almost ever been and they are causing all sorts of problems. In Scotland they are destroying pine forests and in England they are browsing out scrub and bramble where nightingales used to sing.

It’s very easy to say that we simply need to start eating more venison. After all, deer are a very sustainable and environmentally-friendly source of protein but through chatting to Paul Childerley, a deer manager in Bedfordshire, and Jack Smallman, a venison wholesaler from the South Downs, Patrick discovers that it’s not easy. Not least because supermarkets often insist on selling farmed venison that’s shipped here from halfway across the world rather than selling venison from the British countryside.

But things are changing, A growing number of people are keen to get into deer management and it increasingly feels like veganism and vegetarianism are out and sustainable diets, which include meat, are in. Could it be venison’s moment? Patrick, after cooking up some Chinese Water Deer burgers, thinks that if people got a chance to try it, they’d certainly be back for more.