Even dietary considerations should not be considered off limits given that beeffarming, for example, requires nine times as much water as growing cereal crops.
Upland farming has been hit by a triple whammy in recent years of the beef crisis, a collapse in lamb prices and the phasing out of European subsidies with the reform of the common agricultural policy.
Food and farming minister David Heath has said the Food Standards Agency is undertaking the biggest testing of beef products ever "to offer reassurance".
He said they had done so at a time when farming incomes were falling and farmers were "consistently been forced to take low incomes in the beef sector as supermarkets and processors relentlessly press for low prices".