Go vegan, fight climate change: British report urges the government to promote plant-based diets

15 Oct 2019 --- A new report on climate change is urging the UK government to do more to promote vegan diets to help fight climate change – as Animal Rebellion protests continue this week. The behavior change paper, written by an Imperial College London academic Dr. Richard Carmichael, recommends plant-based diets as one of the three significant changes the UK must make, alongside lowering emissions produced by transport and heating. The report states that a shift to vegan diets is a “huge opportunity for consumers to reduce their carbon footprints and enjoy important health benefits for no additional cost.”

The report calls for new regulations requiring that all public sector menus offer a vegan option that is available to anyone every day without special requests.

Additionally, The Vegan Society’s Catering for Everyone campaign is provided as an example of how to achieve this, because the campaign’s aim directly corresponds with this recommendation.

“Dr. Carmichael’s detailed report makes a crucial recommendation to include vegan meal options as standard on public sector menus,” Mark Banahan, The Vegan Society Campaigns Manager says.

“Provision for vegans in this sector is currently lacking, with hospital patients and school children often going hungry. Our proposed legislation would assist in solving this problem,” he adds. 

“We hope that vegans and non-vegans alike will join us in urging institutions to provide healthy and sustainable vegan food for everyone.”

Dr. Carmichael highlights that the dietary aspect “has been neglected by climate policy” and called for “government support for farmers to shift from livestock to horticulture.”

He adds that the government should be broadening choice rather than introducing restrictions – referring to a recent EU proposal to ban vegan products from using so-called “meaty” names.

“The science and the targets for Net Zero are clear and most people are willing to do their bit,” Dr. Carmichael notes. 

This report suggests some practical ways in which barriers can be lowered and people enabled and encouraged to reduce their contribution to global warming substantially, he adds. 

“[Providing vegan options] would not only cater to those already willing but unable to access plant-based meals but would allow others to try these foods and help to normalize low-impact diets.”

“We need to see some swift action from the UK government to start building some momentum in new policy and public engagement, as time is running out,” he stresses. 

In the UK, 30 percent of all meals are provided through education, healthcare and other government-funded institutions.

But while supermarkets and restaurants are responding to growing demand, schools, hospitals, prisons and other public-sector catering outlets do not routinely offer any purely plant-based menu options.

The report found that a shift to plant-based diets would deliver up to around a 73 percent reduction in diet-related emissions compared to current levels and would require 70-80 percent less farmland.

It highlighted that by halving the consumption of meat, dairy and eggs, the EU would achieve a 25 to 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

The livestock industry is especially high-emitting and accounts for an estimated 14.5 percent of all human greenhouse gas emissions globally.

Furthermore, the report also noted that while aviation demand is growing, a proportion of the public has recently shown that they are increasingly interested in more sustainable diets and are ahead of government action and thinking.

Edited by Elizabeth Green