Campaigners claim Bristol City Council's lack of action to ban meat and dairy products from all of its events is pushing up carbon emissions. Eco activists say they have been lobbying the authority for five years, but still nothing has been achieved.
James, 25, a Bristol resident and volunteer for the Plant Based Councils campaign, said: ‘We had meetings with Pro Veg who were happy to help the council for free and change the menus in schools, but this was too complicated, so we pared down the demand to fully plant-based council catering, to amend the contracts of the three catering companies - Parsnip Mash, Pegasus and Cafe Gusto - which the council has full control over.”
He claimed that Mayor Marvin Rees, and policy manager Fiona Gilmour, responded by saying that locally reared meat is preferable compared to imported avocados and rice. James says this is contradictory to any of the evidence he has read which shows meat creates 25kg of CO2 per kg compared to avocados' 1.6 kg of CO2 per kg.
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He added: "Those residents who are making an effort and are trying to lessen their carbon footprint would love an explanation. Some of the Green and Lib Dem councillors have been supportive of the campaign."
At least two councils elsewhere in England have already made the switch to plant-based catering. Oxfordshire County Council voted to switch in 2022, at a packed meeting which saw TV presenter and farmer Jeremy Clarkson protest the decision with other local farmers. Cambridge City Council took a similar decision this May, but with exceptions.
Bristol City Council has been approached for a comment, but they are yet to respond. When the topic was last debated in July last year, deputy mayor Craig Cheney said: “Obviously this year we’re just extending all these contracts and bringing them all in line with each other, before we do a full tendering exercise next year. That’s the point at which this will become part of our thinking, and that will be part of the conservation we have then.”
