Extinction Rebellion to carry out 'peaceful actions' at OFC

Extinction Rebellion campaigners are planning to carry out 'peaceful actions'
Extinction Rebellion campaigners are planning to carry out 'peaceful actions'

Extinction Rebellion has said it will carry out 'peaceful actions' at one of UK farming's most prominent annual industry events.

The environmentalist and vegan group will make their presence felt outside the University of Oxford where the Oxford Farming Conference is due to take place on Tuesday 7 January to Thursday 9 January.

Campaigners say they want to 'highlight how the majority of intensive food and farming systems pollute the land and add appreciably to greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.'

A protest in the city centre of Oxford will also take place against 'the contribution of the current food system to the climate emergency'.

It is not the first time the controversial group has impacted the UK food and farming industries.

In October last year, the London meat market Smithfields, which has been in operation for 800 years, was turned plant-based by activists.

Jane King, of Extinction Rebellion Oxford, said: “Nature is our life support system. Restoring our ecosystems and natural carbon sinks to capture carbon from the atmosphere, is at this time the only feasible solution to avoid climate catastrophe.

“No man-made means of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is currently working at sufficient scale.”

The theme for this year's OFC is “Growing a Healthy Society”. It will look at strengthening the relationship between the population, the land and the people who produce the nation’s food.

The conference will put a spotlight on how healthy, safe and affordable food should be accessible to all – regardless of where people live or how much they earn.