Despite protests outside from local farmers, including Jeremy Clarkson, the Oxfordshire County Council cabinet have voted in favour of officers’ recommendations to ensure that food provided at full council meetings and all civic events is entirely plant-based.
Pete Sudbury, the Cabinet Member for Climate Change Delivery and Environment, told councillors: “Nobody is forcing anything down people’s throats.
“There are two main justifications for this motion: the health of our planet and the health of our people.
“Oxfordshire’s farmers are part of the solution, not the problem.”
Mo Metcalf- Fisher, a spokesman for the Countryside Alliance said:” Oxfordshire County Council Cabinet’s talk about ‘leading by example’ to justify their decision to prohibit meat. The only thing they appear to be leading on, is fundamentally misunderstanding the incredibly important work our UK farmers do to enhance and protect our Great British countryside.
“They don’t appear to have listened to the important concerns raised by their local farming community either, yet staggeringly claim farmers are ‘part of the solution’.
“How can that be the case when they introduce a blanket ban on providing their local produce? Oxfordshire taxpayers want to see councillors dealing with local issues, not grandstanding on what people can and cannot eat”.
