Nottingham City Council bans non-vegan food and drink in meetings

Nottingham City Council announced last week that it will only serve plant-based food and drink at internal meetings from the end of September, prompting public criticism from the Countryside Alliance. 

The council’s decision followed lobbying by Plant-Based Councils, an offshoot of Animal Rising – the animal rights protest group, which is itself an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion.

The controversial activist group claims councils have a “duty” to “lead the way in normalising” plant-based food, which it says is “necessary” to “tackle the climate emergency”.

Cllr Sam Lux, the local authority’s executive member for carbon reduction, leisure and culture, told a full council meeting that non-vegan food and drink would be banned because of “the high-carbon impact of meat and dairy products”.

Nottingham city council’s decision means cow’s milk will no longer be served with tea and coffee, and biscuits made using milk, butter or chocolate will not be offered.

Mo Metcalf-Fisher, the director of external policy for the Countryside Alliance, criticised the move as “absolutely the wrong approach” and renewed his call for councils to back the Alliance’s alternative, inclusive motion to counter meat and dairy bans.

He said:

“Nottingham city council should be sourcing its produce from local farmers and growers, not siding with animal rights fanatics."

“This attempt at grandstanding represents an attack on freedom of choice and the custodians of our countryside who work incredibly hard to produce sustainable food for the nation, while protecting and enhancing our countryside.

“This decision presents challenging questions for the wider Labour Party and I hope the government distances itself from this appalling move against our livestock farming community.”

The decision has also sparked significant backlash locally, with one media commentator questioning whether the debt-laden council “has got its priorities right”.

In a column, Oliver Pridmore, Agenda Editor for Nottinghamshire Live, wrote: “One would think that the dire financial challenges at the city council and how they will affect services would be taking up all the attention. Yet it seems there is still enough time to discuss nuclear war and vegan catering”.

He added: “What we're dealing with here is gesture politics”.

Cllr Andrew Rule, an independent opposition councillor, said that the decision had been “steamrollered through” and councillors had not been given the chance to vote on the matter.

Activists had claimed that failing to ban food and drink from internal meetings would make it harder for the authority to meet its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2028.

In a written question calling on the council to impose the change, Ruby Mucenieks, a supporter of Plant-Based Councils, said: “The science is clear that meat and dairy are major contributors to the climate and ecological emergencies.”

In July, Calderdale council in West Yorkshire committed to introduce completely plant-based catering and Dacorum borough council in Hertfordshire pledged to introduce vegetarian internal catering by next year.

Elsewhere, ten local authorities, including Suffolk, Cornwall, and Dorset, have voted in favour of the Countryside Alliance’s alternative motion, which commits councils to keeping meat and dairy on the menu and supplying produce from local farmers and growers, benefiting both livestock and arable farmers.