Devon councillors have rejected a motion which sought to boost the quantity of vegan food at council-run events, as it was 'really bad timing' for local farmers.
The motion sought a vegan allocation of half of all food served at Torridge District Council's catering events, as part of a wider promotion of a plant-based diet.
It was put forward over concerns that farming practices and current patterns in the consumption of animal products were accelerating climate change.
The council is one of many in Devon who have committed to reaching net zero by 2030, although North Devon Council admitted recently that it would not be able to achieve it.
One member of the Torridge Council's community resources committee described the call as 'really, really bad timing' for Devon farmers.
It comes in the face of a major row over the government's plans to introduce inheritance tax on farm assets over £1m, a move which the industry says threatens the future of family farms.
Cllr Peter Hames (Green, Appledore) said ten percent of the UK’s carbon emissions were from agriculture, with 68 percent of that from livestock and animal feed.
He said if the UK was serious about reducing its carbon footprint it needed to find a more efficient use of the land as farming it was unsustainable.
However council leader Ken James (Ind, Milton and Tamarside) said he was disappointed this item was even on the agenda.
“Promoting this means we aren’t really understanding what this community is about," he said.
Cllr Anna Dart (Ind, Hartland) said it was stated in reports that there would be no measurable effect on the council’s carbon footprint given its very limited spend on catering if this proposal went ahead.
“All this does is proves that we stand against our entire countryside and the economic activity and all the business activity relating to it,” she said.
The committee was told that more than 75% of Devon farmland was grassland and its landscape was well-suited to dairy, sheep and beef farming and was “low density” farming compared to the more intensive methods.
Cllr Rosemary Lock (Con, Two Rivers and Three Moors) said 60 percent of the country’s land was not suitable for growing arable crops.
And she added the UK as a whole was responsible for just one per cent of global gas emissions with agriculture accounting for half of that.
Councillors suggested the authority should be working with the farming community as farmers were pretty “forward thinking” and a member of the NFU should be invited to talk to the council.
Cllr Teresa Tinsley (Lib Dem, Bideford North) added that this was the wrong time to be implementing a policy like this.
“I just think this is really really bad timing from the farming point of view and could send a really bad message," she added.
"Can you imagine ‘Devon council bans cream teas?’ – I do not want to go anywhere near that at the moment.”
The Countryside Alliance, which has spearheaded efforts urging councils to back farmers of all sectors, said British meat was among the most sustainable in the world.
Mo Metcalf-Fisher, director of external affairs for the group said: "Where councils provide food, say at civic events, it’s right that all diets can be catered for.”
“The concern many people have with motions proposing a compulsory 50% plant-based menu is that it’s a slippery slope and being driven by groups or people that believe livestock farming in this country is a fundamentally a bad thing.
Torridge becomes the latest council in the UK to reject a move towards plant-based catering.
Eleven other local authorities including Cornwall, Portsmouth City, Suffolk and North Northamptonshire have all voted in a favour of a Countryside Alliance backed motion.
This aims to support local farmers by ensuring the council proactively sources local, seasonal produce- explicitly including meat and dairy- at council events.
It also encourages residents to ‘shop locally’ and urges them to take advantage of ‘home-grown, affordable, nutritious food’, irrespective of dietary preference.
The campaign was launched after several other councils elsewhere voted to ban meat and dairy items from their menus, including Oxfordshire County Council, Cambridge City Council and Enfield Borough Council in London.
