We call on our elected representatives to empower everyone to benefit from sustainable, healthy, ethical plant-based and animal-free living.
Manifesto Asks
Food
We want everyone to enjoy the benefits which sustainable, healthy plant-based food can offer. We call on the Government to enact the following policies around food:
- Require a balanced vegan-friendly, plant-based meal option on every menu which is funded with public money.
- Set up on-going public awareness campaigns on the health and environmental benefits of plant-based eating.
- Explore financial intervention to improve access to healthy plant-based food, such as significant subsidies (e.g. 10%), and removing all explicit and implicit subsides from animal-based food.
- Promote a healthy diet within the education system. Make it compulsory for all schools to offer vegan-friendly, plant-based cookery classes to all students.
- Have free local fruit and veg in schools, available to all students.
- Zero VAT rates on vegan-suitable, plant-based catering and restaurants.
- Fully include access to and support for plant-based diets in all public health strategies, for children and adults.
- Support the use of well-known product descriptions, such as milk, butter, cheese, burgers and sausages for all plant-based food products (eg. almond milk, peanut butter, bean burgers & vegan cheese Glamorgan sausages).
Land Management
Moving to plant-based land management techniques – in farming, forestry, and other sectors – will be a vital contribution to tackling the climate emergency, as well as supporting rural communities, and meeting demand for sustainable supply chains for food, fuel, building materials, textiles, medicines and more. We call on the Government to enact the following policies around land management:
- Develop packages of support for transition out of animal farming, in conjunction with land managers.
- Incorporate climate change mitigation, public health benefits and animal protection into the “public money for public goods” approach, and ensure payments are proportional to the degree of public benefits provided.
- Establish advisory services for new growers, and educate the whole supply chain about the environmental and economic benefits of pulse production.
- Direct subsidies towards high protein crops.
- Designate funding for market and research development, working with other trade and research organisations to identify priorities and taking a unified approach.
- Introduce a ‘new entrants’ scheme to combat demographic issues in farming and help innovative plant based growers to access land.
- Finance rewilding and afforestation to support UK climate targets and biodiversity.
Health Care
The animal-free and plant-based practices of veganism can support public health and climate change policy goals, and be protected by human rights law. The British Dietetic Association confirms1, well-planned, plant-based, vegan friendly diets can support healthy living in people of all ages, and during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The philosophy of veganism can meet the requirements to be a protected belief under The Equality Act (UK) 2010. Therefore, we call on the Government to explicitly support vegan-suitable health care through:
- An Eatwell Guide which specifically gives plant-based, vegan-suitable guidance.
- Training in the benefits of whole food plant-based and vegan diets for all health care professionals.
- Improved labelling of medications, showing clearly which ingredients are animal-derived, for the benefits of all who avoid one or more animal products e.g. religious groups, vegetarians and vegans.
- Development and routine availability of plant-based, vegan-suitable infant formula.
- Routine availability of Vitamin K for newborns which is suitable for vegans.
- Funding for further research into the likely health benefits of wholefood plant-based, vegan-suitable diets already documented in the medical literature, for the prevention and treatment of common serious health conditions such as diabetes.
Education
These issues will be dealt with by the Government in Westminster for England, and by the devolved Governments or Assemblies in the rest of the UK.
- The philosophical belief of veganism included in the school curriculum.
- Plant-based, vegan-suitable healthy meals on every school menu.
- Clarification that all schools need to provide alternative learning contexts, which do not involve any use of non-human beings, for vegans and for the benefit of other students with protected beliefs around animals.
Social security
- Auto-enrolment into a standard ethical pension scheme.