Farmers have criticised Oxfordshire County Council after it voted to approve a proposal to provide entirely plant-based food at meetings and civic events.
Despite protests outside from local farmers, including Jeremy Clarkson, the council's cabinet voted in favour of officers' recommendations to ensure that food provided is entirely vegan.
Plant-based food options will also make an appearance on school menus across the county.
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."
He added: “Oxfordshire’s farmers are part of the solution, not the problem.”
Jeremy Clarkson, who farms and films his hit TV series in Oxfordshire, told the BBC: "It's the principle of it. You can't dictate.
"You might be a vegetarian but you can't make everyone else a vegetarian just because you are."
AHDB had challenged Oxfordshire County Council prior to the vote, as such a proposal 'failed to reflect' the true impact of British farming.
For example, the carbon footprint of milk produced in the UK is nearly a third lower than the global average, the levy organisation pointed out.
Responding to the vote, the Countryside Alliance said councillors "don't appear to have listened to the important concerns raised by their local farming community".
Mo Metcalf-Fisher, a spokesman for the rural campaign group said: "Oxfordshire's County Council’s Cabinet 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 countryside."
He added that the council claimed farmers were ‘part of the solution’, but he questioned: "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."
