ANOTHER council in Oxfordshire is looking at feeding its members vegan food at meetings.

In March, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet voted to serve plant-based meals at full council meetings and all civic events.

The decision was made despite a protest by farmers, who were joined by Jeremy Clarkson outside the county hall.

READ AGAIN: County council will now serve vegan food at meetings and school lunches

Now, Oxford city councillors are looking at introducing a similar scheme at their meetings.

A motion proposed by Labour councillors sought vegan meals to be served at councillor-only events and plant-based options at public council events.

The motion, proposed by Cowley ward councillor Paula Dunne and seconded by Carfax and Jericho councillor Alex Hollingsworth, wasn’t taken however as the time allocated for debate had run out.

Motions have a time limit of one hour, and with no time left, the ‘plant-based food and sustainable farming’ motion wasn’t discussed.

It called however for the council to ‘work with local farmers to support, promote and encourage their move to create more sustainable plant-based produce’.

The motion also sought commitments to the provision of entirely plant-based food at councillor-only events and the provision of vegan options at public council events which are catered.

The local authority’s cabinet was set to be asked to work with all council-run companies and facilities to encourage moving to vegan catering options by August.

Oxford Mail: Oxford Town Hall. Picture: Ed NixOxford Town Hall. Picture: Ed Nix (Image: Ed Nix)

The motion added: “The global scientific consensus is that humans have heated the climate at a rate that is unprecedented, and we are heading towards mass extinction not just for ourselves but of entire ecosystems if we do not change our actions today.

“We have a duty as leaders in the city to empower the local community to make changes that can mitigate climate catastrophe and help preserve the vitality of our planet for future generations.

“In the UK, we eat twice as much meat and dairy as the global average which is not sustainable as there is not enough land in the world to meet this demand without destroying our natural world.

“Plant-based sources of protein have much smaller carbon footprints than animal-based ones, even when comparing locally raised meat to imported plant foods.

“Our relationship to food is still an overlooked factor to the climate crisis yet it is the quickest and cheapest step to help tackle the climate crisis if we reduce our meat intake.

“One of the few ways of reducing emissions that potentially saves people money is by consuming less meat which can be done immediately.

“To protect and enrich jobs in Oxford, we should work closely with local farmers and plant-based food organisations to move to more sustainable farming methods and local produce that promotes plant-based food.”

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This story was written by Liam Rice, he joined the team in 2019 as a multimedia reporter.

Liam covers politics, travel and transport. He occasionally covers Oxford United.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Liam.rice@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailLiamRice