Urge NHS To Go Plant-Based To Achieve Carbon Neutrality
The Issue
The National Health Service has announced plans to cut carbon emissions to net zero and reduce air pollution. As a result, it has called on the general public for evidence 'to identify new opportunities for greening the NHS'.
Please sign this petition urging the NHS to ditch meat and all animal products from its menus - offering patients and visitors plant-based food options - and submit your evidence here. Feel free to copy the research below to use as your submission.
Why plant-based?
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which is chaired by Lord Deben, has recently declared the UK needs to slash its meat and dairy intake by 20 percent if it wants to meet its net-zero emissions target by 2050. As well as reducing intake of animal foods, The CCC says the UK must also take a fifth of agricultural land out of production, in order to create woodland and trees, which act as carbon stores.
Similarly, a recent report by Greenpeace says the meat industry is Europe's biggest contribution to deforestation, stating a staggering 1.4 million hectares of land - an area larger than Northern Ireland - is needed to produce enough feed for factory-farmed chickens in the UK, which imports more than 3 million tons of soy every year from South America (most of which is fed to factory-farmed animals).
A report on climate change and land use, drafted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), also encourages adopting a plant-based diet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."The consumption of healthy and sustainable diets, such as those based on coarse grains, pulses and vegetables, and nuts and seeds … presents major opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions," the report reads.
New Zeland's Ministry of Health promoted a plant-based diet in its latest report - Sustainability and the Health Sector: A guide to getting started.
The report, published July 30, also encourages people to 'reduce meat and dairy' and 'buy local and sustainable food products' - stating that agriculture makes up nearly half (49 percent) of the country's greenhouse gas emissions (Ministry for the Environment, 2018).
An expert from Imperial College London says 'diet has been neglected by climate policy' - and has promoted the shift towards eating plant-based. Dr. Richard Carmichael made the statement in the Behaviour change, public engagement and Net Zero report -prepared for the Committee on Climate Change, which advises ministers how to cut the country's carbon footprint. "In countries with high per-capita meat consumption, like the UK, a shift towards 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," the report reads.
"Shifting to more sustainable diets, with reduced meat and dairy and more plant-based proteins and foods, offers a huge opportunity for consumers to reduce their personal carbon footprints with no additional cost and would also deliver large health benefits and NHS cost savings to society."
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If the NHS ditched animal products and turned its menus plant-based, it would also benefit the health of patients. Currently, meat cured with chemicals that have been blamed for causing certain types of cancer are on the hospital menus at more than four out of every five NHS trusts.
Thank you for taking the time to read,
Liam.
928
The Issue
The National Health Service has announced plans to cut carbon emissions to net zero and reduce air pollution. As a result, it has called on the general public for evidence 'to identify new opportunities for greening the NHS'.
Please sign this petition urging the NHS to ditch meat and all animal products from its menus - offering patients and visitors plant-based food options - and submit your evidence here. Feel free to copy the research below to use as your submission.
Why plant-based?
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which is chaired by Lord Deben, has recently declared the UK needs to slash its meat and dairy intake by 20 percent if it wants to meet its net-zero emissions target by 2050. As well as reducing intake of animal foods, The CCC says the UK must also take a fifth of agricultural land out of production, in order to create woodland and trees, which act as carbon stores.
Similarly, a recent report by Greenpeace says the meat industry is Europe's biggest contribution to deforestation, stating a staggering 1.4 million hectares of land - an area larger than Northern Ireland - is needed to produce enough feed for factory-farmed chickens in the UK, which imports more than 3 million tons of soy every year from South America (most of which is fed to factory-farmed animals).
A report on climate change and land use, drafted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), also encourages adopting a plant-based diet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."The consumption of healthy and sustainable diets, such as those based on coarse grains, pulses and vegetables, and nuts and seeds … presents major opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions," the report reads.
New Zeland's Ministry of Health promoted a plant-based diet in its latest report - Sustainability and the Health Sector: A guide to getting started.
The report, published July 30, also encourages people to 'reduce meat and dairy' and 'buy local and sustainable food products' - stating that agriculture makes up nearly half (49 percent) of the country's greenhouse gas emissions (Ministry for the Environment, 2018).
An expert from Imperial College London says 'diet has been neglected by climate policy' - and has promoted the shift towards eating plant-based. Dr. Richard Carmichael made the statement in the Behaviour change, public engagement and Net Zero report -prepared for the Committee on Climate Change, which advises ministers how to cut the country's carbon footprint. "In countries with high per-capita meat consumption, like the UK, a shift towards 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," the report reads.
"Shifting to more sustainable diets, with reduced meat and dairy and more plant-based proteins and foods, offers a huge opportunity for consumers to reduce their personal carbon footprints with no additional cost and would also deliver large health benefits and NHS cost savings to society."
---
If the NHS ditched animal products and turned its menus plant-based, it would also benefit the health of patients. Currently, meat cured with chemicals that have been blamed for causing certain types of cancer are on the hospital menus at more than four out of every five NHS trusts.
Thank you for taking the time to read,
Liam.
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Petition created on 29 January 2020