Newark and Nottinghamshire Agricultural Society has been criticised for hosting a vegan event with an 'aggressive anti-farming agenda'.
The society, which aims to promote agriculture in the region and is home to the Nottinghamshire Young Farmers Club, has a three-year contract to host the ‘Vegan Camp-Out’ at Newark Showground.
According to the event's website, it is the world’s largest vegan camping festival as well as being the most international, with campers each year coming from over 30 different countries.
The camp-out hosts activist talks at the showground, aiming to 'raise awareness and inspire vegans to think more deeply about the concepts and strategies of animal advocacy and movement building'.
The event has hosted activist speakers who have served time in prison. Ronnie Lee, founder of the Animal Liberation Front, has spent years in prison for his activism. He was headline speaker in 2018.
Tim Bonner, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, has written to Newark and Nottinghamshire Agricultural Society urging them to cancel the event to 'protect the farming community, rather than promoting extremists who way to end their way of life'.
Mr Bonner told The Telegraph that is is 'extraordinary' that a society with the charitable object of promoting agriculture should be hosting an event that has 'at its core an aggressive anti-farming agenda'.
“It is difficult to understand why the society is determined to carry on hosting this event when presented with unarguable evidence that it involves the spreading of an aggressive anti-farming agenda.
“Animal rights extremists from all over the world will be gathering to share tactics and train activists,” he said.
In response, the society said that by hosting events at their showground they can keep offering grants and loans to the farming community
A spokesman told the paper: “As an agricultural society we are apolitical and deplore invective or criminal acts made against the farming community, who grow food for all of us whether omnivore, vegetarian or vegan.
“In a democracy we recognise the right of those making extreme opinions to express them, even if we disagree with them, provided they remain within the law.”
