Sheffield City Council has set a commendable goal for the local authority and the city to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and has taken significant steps in this direction.
However, there is currently no commitment from the council to promote a plant-based diet as a means to help reach this goal. This oversight is particularly striking given the growing awareness of the climate and environmental impact of our food choices. The council’s own Food Strategy (Sheffield City Council 2022) acknowledges the findings of the 2021 National Food Strategy that to meet climate and nature goals, the national diet must contain 30% less meat by 2032.
The carbon footprint of a plant-based diet is substantially lower than one that includes animal products. Research conducted by Scarborough et al. (2023) at Oxford University demonstrates that a fully plant-based diet produces 75% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, requires 75% less land, uses 54% less water, and results in 66% less biodiversity loss compared to a diet containing 100 grams of meat daily.
By leading the way in promoting plant-based eating, Sheffield City Council would encourage residents and businesses in the city to reduce the climate and environmental impact of food choices significantly. At the same time, this would help to achieve the council's net zero goal by 2030.
Given that the Council has already declared a climate emergency and this issue is urgent, we ask the Council to respond positively to this petition, without delay.
References:
Scarborough, P., Clark, M., Cobiac, L., Papier, K., Knuppel, A. et al. (2023) Vegans, vegetarians, fish-eaters and meat-eaters in the UK show discrepant environmental impacts. Nature Food. 4(7), 565–574.
Sheffield City Council (2022) Fairer, healthier, greener - a Food Strategy for Sheffield. Sheffield City Council. https://sheffood.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/SHEFFIELD-FOOD-STRATEGY-FAIRER-HEALTHIER-GREENER-FULL-LENGTH.pdf
Started by: Evelina Stankeviciute (Plant-Based Councils)
This ePetition runs from 08/05/2024 to 08/06/2025.
15 people have signed this ePetition.