Jamie Oliver champions British beef

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's pastoral landscape risks going to seed unless consumers buy more British beef and lamb, a coalition including celebrity chef Jamie Oliver said on Tuesday.

"Now is the time to call for action to help our British farmers. It's been a tough year for them and for many it's just getting worse," Oliver said in a statement.

If farmers go out of business, landscapes such as the Yorkshire Dales and Dartmoor would be marred by dereliction and undergrazing, a coalition including Oliver, the National Farmers Union and the Campaign to Protect Rural England said.

They called on consumers to buy more British meat and for producers to be paid a higher price so farms remain viable.

The livestock sector has suffered a series of major setbacks this year including two major disease outbreaks, foot and mouth and bluetongue, major flooding in western England and soaring feed costs as global wheat prices rose sharply.

"Unless farmers' prices start to rise, to fill the yawning gap between what it costs to produce beef cattle and sheep and what farmers are paid for them, British beef and lamb will become niche products," NFU president Peter Kendall said.

"That will be bad news for consumers, bad for farming, bad for employment in the meat industry and bad for the countryside," he added.

NFU livestock board chairman Thomas Binns said the beef herd in England has fallen 11 percent and the sheep breeding flock by over 10 percent.

"Even more worrying for the future is the decline in the number of younger beef cattle in the pipeline -- down by 15 percent in just four years," he said.