Farmers have accused Oxford Town Hall of snubbing them and limiting free choice after the council banned meat at events and meetings.
According to The Times:
Oxford city council voted unanimously in favour of only providing plant-based food at internal councillor events and plant-based options at all council-catered events and meetings.
Paula Dunne, a Labour councillor, proposed the motion on the grounds that overconsumption of meat and dairy was “the leading cause of modern species extinctions”.
Dunne said: “In the UK we eat twice as much meat and dairy as the global average, which is not sustainable on a finite planet, as there is not enough land in the world to meet this demand.”
The council adopted a similar policy in December 2021. Jeremy Clarkson, whose farm is in Chadlington, described it as “utter madness”.
The Plant-Based Councils campaign had been lobbying Oxford city council, which is led by the Labour Party, after convincing Cambridge, Exeter and Norwich to phase out meat at events. Butchers, farmers and campaign groups have criticised the policy.
Mo Metcalf-Fisher, a spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, said: “This vote represents an attack on freedom of choice and is a snub to our hard-working farming community. Anti-farming policies such as this will only alienate the voters they need to win over.”
Liam Walker, a Conservative councillor who opposed the decision, described it as “gesture politics” and a “kick in the teeth to local farmers in this county”. He said: “The idea that some councillors eating vegan meals a few times a year is suddenly going to help towards climate change is madness.”
At the debate, Dr Nicola Smith, from Plant-Based Health professionals, said that there was “substantial evidence that a plant-based diet can benefit individual health”.
“Oxford city council has the opportunity to model best practice for the local population,” she said.
However, Alexia Robinson, founder of the campaign group Love British Food, told The Times: “Meat and dairy are proven to play an important role in a balanced diet. I absolutely agree that less is more, but none is wrong.”
