Activists have taken to Tel Aviv and cities around the world to push governments to fight climate change by putting food systems at the forefront of their green policies.
This new global campaign is calling for a "Plant Based Treaty," which will see people put pressure from the bottom on leaders to negotiate global agreements halting animal agriculture and the impact it has on the planet.
The treaty centers on three principles:
RELINQUISH
No land-use change, ecosystem degradation or deforestation for the purposes of animal agriculture.
REDIRECT
An active transition away from animal-based agricultural systems to plant-based food systems.
RESTORE
Restore key ecosystems and reforest the Earth.
The treaty draws attention to the effects that meat, dairy and egg farming have on the environment, as they drive carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
It is believed that reducing methane emissions is the only way of avoiding temperatures rising above 1.5⁰C.
“With just five years left, according to the latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, to reverse the worst effects of climate change, business as usual is no longer an option. It’s time to switch toward a plant-based economy to reverse the damage we have caused to the environment, and to promote a healthier society,” Israel Climate Save & Freedom4Animals founder Yael Gabay said in a statement.
“We reached out to the city of Tel Aviv’s environmental representative and deputy mayor, Reuven Ladianski, several times to request a meeting with the city to present them with the Plant Based Treaty and see how the city can possibly endorse it, to no avail. So we are here today, demanding they take this grassroots initiative seriously The weather in Tel Aviv, in Israel and in the rest of the world, will continue to become more extreme each year and we are facing an apocalypse if we do not take serious action.”
Similar events are happening in Bristol, Manchester, Lisbon, Toronto, Ankara, Mexico City and more.