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21 Aug 2018
Climate protesters take imported food to Smithfield Market after refusing entry to meat traders
A member of the public photographed pears from Belgium and salad leaves from France, suggesting they had ‘less than desirable’ air miles.
Lauren Dean
Climate change campaigners forced meat traders out of London’s most iconic meat market and replaced them with stands of imported fruit and vegetables.
Industry members on the scene photographed pears from Belgium and salad leaves from France, suggesting they had ‘less than desirable’ air miles.
XR setting up a fruit market at Smithfield which is great enterprise, but some of those air miles are less than desirable... pic.twitter.com/Alr0fFezAw
— Christian Calgie (@christiancalgie)XR setting up a fruit market at Smithfield which is great enterprise, but some of those air miles are less than desirable... pic.twitter.com/Alr0fFezAw
— Christian Calgie (@christiancalgie) October 7, 2019
The protestors, who flooded Smithfield Market with plant-based stands and tents, were protesting against livestock farming as part of Extinction Rebellion’s two-week London shutdown.
Volunteers have been told they can access up to £400 per week of financial support from the group, as long as they have been ‘actively helping for at least one month’.
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Countryside Alliance chief executive Tim Bonner said the group should be encouraging the purchase of high welfare, grass-fed British beef and lamb ‘which would cut down our carbon footprint whilst supporting British farmers’.
He said: “Worse than that is the complete inability to explain what would happen to our beautiful countryside and the communities it supports if livestock farming was phased out.
“Activists are alienating people rather than actually providing answers to the challenges facing the environment and the countryside.”
Sustainable
Welsh hill farmer Gareth Wyn Jones, who attended the first day of the protests on Monday, said plant-based production was not viable in the hills.
He said: “We live in a country with a good climate to grow grass. Grass is a fantastic way to feed cows and sheep to produce top quality red protein.
“We also have the milk, the yoghurt, the cheeses. That is sustainable and that is what we should be celebrating.”
Almost 600 campaigners were arrested during the first two days of the protest and Extinction Rebellion has called on its members to ‘pledge to non-cooperation’ and refuse bail conditions.
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