Nationals Senator and former butcher Susan McDonald is leading the inquiry. Hopefully, there will be a sensible result, but the real question is, why do we need plant-based meat substitutes in the first place?

Our livestock industry contributes $2billiion in exports each year. Cattle exports alone are worth $1.35billion. The meat and livestock sector contributes $7billion to Australia's Gross Domestic Product - an industry worth protecting.

Creating meat-tasting products from vegetables and chemicals is part of the "save the planet" argument about methane emissions from livestock, particularly cattle.

In all of these climate matters, we need to look carefully at the influence of activists who are using climate to justify other campaigns. Vegan activists have tried various direct ways of nobbling pig farms and poultry producers, but if they are successful in forcing climate controls, they could price meat products out of the food chain.

At this point, I should insert a couple of quotes from a Scientific American publication: "Growing rice in flooded conditions causes up to 12 per cent of global emissions of methane," and "Methane from rice farming causes 3 per cent of anthropogenic global warming."

Before we go any further, we should be clear on one thing: producing food creates emissions, whether we are talking about meat, or vegetables.

Some people choose a vegetarian diet. It is their choice, none of our business. A vegetarian is not to be confused with a Vegan - a vegetarian activist by political choice.

However, during preparation of this column, I came across a study from the Medical University of Graz in Austria which showed, amongst other things, that vegetarians were twice as likely to have allergies, higher levels of impairment from disorders, chronic diseases, and "suffer significantly more often from anxiety/depression."

It concluded that "Overall, vegetarians were found to be in a poorer state of health compared to other dietary groups."

Meat is an important part of the human diet. The threat to our health was made very clear in an article in The Rural section of January 27's Daily Advertiser: "Vegan 'junk food' under fire".

The story was aimed directly at the "animals are bad for the climate" bandwagon - methane burping, and so on. Producing plant-based "meats", the article suggests, is producing sub-standard food compared to the genuine product.

The message to the Senate Inquiry was clear: plant-based products do not have the same composition or nutritional profile of animal-based products. "The ultra processed nature ... the long list of chemicals and additive ingredients ..." means these products are not meat substitutes, and should not have deceptive meat-like labelling, or be placed near the meat displays.

"Animal-sourced foods, on a dry matter basis, have about 68 per cent protein, whereas, other than the legumes, plant-based staples have less than 12 per cent," the story continued.

I noted the "other than the legumes" line in the meat story. Whatever happened to natural? If you want plant protein, have a can of baked beans, cheap, nutritious, and no false labelling words like "meat".

Legumes - chickpeas and other peas and beans - are a great source of vegetarian protein as part of a balanced diet, but not as a substitute for meat.

Unless, of course, you are politically opposed to the meat industry.

The Glasgow Climate Conference talked about methane emissions from livestock. Climate provisions were deleted from the UK-Australia Free Trade Deal, but I suspect wily British trade negotiators had them inserted into Glasgow's rules to protect Britain's beef industry.

Feeding seaweed to livestock to lower emissions is a very British solution, designed to increase costs for other meat-producing nations.

In Wagga, meat creates more jobs than any other industry, if we take into account farmers, livestock sales, the abattoir, truck drivers and so on.

Meat is vital for our diet, our livelihoods, and Australia's export income, too.

Maybe the Senate Inquiry will recommend labelling meat substitutes as "junk food".