Vegetarians chanting "Meat means murder" yesterday presented organisers of the Royal Smithfield Show, the annual showcase for livestock and farm machinery at Earls Court in London, with six wreaths to mourn the 600 million animals slaughtered in Britain every year.
One campaigner flung a handful of 5p coins in front of William Cumber, the chairman of the Royal Smithfield Club, saying that "these 30 pieces of silver" symbolised the betrayal of animals who were pampered during the show but then sent to the abattoir.
The annual confrontation between the Vegetarian Society and show officials appears to have achieved one small concession this year. The practice of hanging the carcasses of slaughtered sheep over pens still containing live animals has been dropped, officially for hygiene reasons.
Marketing Strategies for Industry, an independent research group, estimated earlier this year that 2.2 million people in Britain, about 4 per cent of the population, are vegetarians. A further 3.4 million avoid "red" meat, but eat poultry and fish. The vast majority of those who call themselves vegetarians are happy to consume milk and eggs. There are thought to be no more than 20,000 true vegans, who refuse to eat any animal product.
Vegetarianism is most common among women and the young. However, the biggest change in eating habits seems to be in the growing proportion of omnivores who want a less meat-heavy diet 43 per cent, according to Gallup last year.
Some of those claiming to be vegetarians may be using the term rather loosely. Despite the apparent growth in vegetarianism, total household consumption of meat has held steady at between 35oz and 40oz per person per week for the past 30 years, according to the agriculture ministry's National Food Survey. The survey does show a steady fall in the buying of lamb, and a more uneven decline in beef eating (recently exacerbated by concerns over "mad cow" disease), but that has been offset by increased pork and poultry consumption. Chicken, largely a Christmas treat 40 years ago, has now overtaken beef in most family diets.
Concern about cruelty to animals and worry that too much meat is unhealthy have been the forces behind the trend to vegetarianism and the switch from red to white meat. Ironically, the huge increase in chicken consumption has been made possible by the kind of intensive factory farming that attracts most criticism.
The Meat and Livestock Commission, the voice of the red meat industry, says that a greater proportion of beef is now eaten in restaurants and hotels and that statistics based on consumption in the home, such as those collected by the ministry, overstate the decline in beef eating.
The commission was recently criticised by the Advertising Standards Authority for "implying that eating meat could provide health benefits unobtainable" from a vegetarian diet.
The Vegetarian Society was told by the authority to withdraw a poster implying that the amount of grain and soya eaten by livestock reared for the table in Britain was causing famine in developing countries. The authority said that the advertisement "over-simplified a complex issue".
Next year's Smithfield show will be held a week earlier so that there is a longer period between slaughter and Christmas sales of meat.
