Even if we stop fossil fuel emissions immediately, current trends in our global food systems will take us past the 1.5°C target, and threaten the 2°C target. Curtailing industrial animal agriculture is justified, necessary, and long overdue.
We support farmers, who produce food for us all. Climate change, public health, food poverty and the needs of animals mean we need to phase out the farming of animals. We call upon political leaders to urgently help land managers and food suppliers to transition to a fairer, better, plant-based systems. We need co-ordinated improvement and investment in every aspect of our food systems, to meet our social, health and climate change goals.
Predominantly plant-based agriculture brings a range of benefits for health, the environment, biodiversity, animal well-being, and the future habitability of Earth. We must transition in a just manner, in line with e.g. the Paris Agreement’s preamble, the SDGs, and the International Labour Organisation guidelines. Farmers, food workers, and wider communities – like coal miners – need government support in this process. A Just Transition will work toward sound investments, social dialogue, research-based impact assessments, social protection, and economic diversification.
Hence, Policy Ask 3: Invest in legume farming and plant-protein food supply chains: research and develop nitrogen-fixing legume crops – to supply most protein foods, replace nitrogen fertilizers, and enable the transition towards plant-based global agriculture, without any harm to human well-being.
Learn more from our "Achieving Climate Goals through Plant-Based Agriculture and Food" Policy Briefing.
The views expressed by our bloggers are not necessarily the views of The Vegan Society.
