Torridge district councillors last week rejected a proposal to increase the amount of plant-based food served by the council at its internal meetings and events to 50% of the food on offer. The motion was brought by Green Party councillor Peter Hames, seconded by a Liberal Democrat councillor, after a unanimous vote by Torridge’s Councillor Climate Change Working Group.
Torridge Green Party welcomes the thoughtful discussion that followed when the proposal was put to a meeting of the council’s community and resources committee. Nonetheless we are disappointed at levels of hostility among some councillors present, one of whom claimed that to go ahead with the plan would suggest “that we [the council] stand against our entire countryside and the economic activity … relating to it”. Another said they were fed up with all the talk about carbon emissions.
Our Green Party councillors, in common with other members of the council’s climate working group, support small meat and dairy farmers in Torridge and recognise the challenges they face at a time of unprecedented upheaval for farming. We know that many are working hard to produce food in a more sustainable way, and the Green Party in its 2024 manifesto called for significant increases in financial support – including for meat and dairy farms – to speed up the transition to low-carbon and nature-friendly farming.
At the same time, meat and dairy production on an industrial scale, not just nationally but worldwide, is a major source of carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. The government’s official Committee on Climate Change has called for a reduction in meat and dairy consumption by at least 20% to help meet the UK’s legally binding target of net zero by 2050.
The climate crisis is already disrupting food production in Britain, and threatening the future of small farms, with farmers in Devon this year battling some of the wettest February/March weather on record.
It is against this background that Torridge district council was asked to consider a modest change to its catering as a way of opening up discussion of the climate and biodiversity issues around livestock farming. Along with the rest of Britain, Torridge cannot ignore global changes, and the children of today’s farmers will not thank us for doing nothing when faced with clear evidence of human-induced climate breakdown.