AN OUTSPOKEN environmentalist who wants to see sheep removed from Cumbria’s fells has agreed to face the county’s farmers.

George Monbiot will be grilled on his views at the Federation of Cumbria Commoners’ (FCC) annual general meeting next month.

The Guardian columnist has angered the county’s upland farmers with his comments about the role of livestock on the fells, which he claims have become ‘sheep-wrecked’.

In his latest book advocating re-wilding the planet, Mr Monbiot describes sheep farming as ‘a slow-burning ecological disaster’ which he claims ‘has done more damage to the living systems of this country than either climate change or industrial pollution’.

He will address the FCC meeting at Newton Rigg College, Penrith, on March 7 after which there will be a question and answer session.