The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to adopt its resolution in Support of the global Plant Based Treaty initiative. The treaty is an initiative aimed at encouraging leaders to move societies away from animal products and toward plant-based diets.

Source: Plant Based Treaty/YouTube

The Los Angeles City Council also made history by recommending that the U.S. government make plant-based solutions a centerpiece of its greenhouse gas emissions policy.

“LA is historically known to lead the nation in environmental trends,” said Jane Velez-Mitchell, UnChainedTV founder and veteran journalist. “What happens in LA spreads to the rest of the world.”

The Plant Based Treaty focuses on three core principles: Relinquish, Redirect and Restore. It is a companion to the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement and aims to put food systems at the forefront of combating the climate crisis.

“We are urging scientists, individuals, groups, businesses and cities to endorse this call to action and put pressure on national governments to negotiate an international Plant Based Treaty,” the Plant Based Treaty website reads.

The Los Angeles City Council’s decision was made just ahead of the annual C40 World Mayors Summit. Los Angeles is now the second C40 City to endorse the Plant Based Treaty, following Buenos Aires last month.

California is home to the country’s largest dairy industry and has around 1.7 million cows. According to the California Air Resources Board, animal farming is to blame for more than half of California’s methane emissions.

“This landmark resolution marks a vital cultural shift as Americans prioritize both combating Climate change and improving their health,” said Councilmember Paul Koretz, who introduced the resolution with Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson on September 6. “As over 2,200 municipalities did with climate emergency declarations, I invite other cities to join us and endorse the Plant Based Treaty.”

Haywards Heath, a town of 34,000 in West Sussex, recently made history when the town council signed up for The Plant-Based Treaty, making them the first UK city to do so. Sir Paul McCartney and Joaquin Phoenix backed the treaty along with the city of Buenos Aires in Argentina. To read more about the Plant-Based Treaty, check out their website.

Factory farms are extremely unsustainable and harmful to our planet. They cause mass deforestation, account for 37 percent of global methane emissions, and use 70 percent of the world’s freshwater. Even though the animals are kept in inhumanely cramped spaces, it takes quite a bit of land to grow food to feed these animals, and thus, large swaths of forest are cleared to make room for livestock feed. Furthermore, the animals’ waste may be kept in large lagoons, which not only take up space but also pollute water and air. As a result, meat and other animal products, like dairy, are extremely harmful to the environment.

Plant-based foods generally have a much smaller environmental footprint than meat. One study found that a serving size of meat is responsible for 20 times more greenhouse gas emissions and 100 times more land use than a serving of veggies. According to the study, “Producing a serving of processed red meat has the second-highest mean impact on acidification, GHG emissions, and land use and the third-highest mean impact for eutrophication.” Another report found that people who eat meat daily produce 2.8 tons of carbon dioxide annually, as opposed to 1.5 tons for vegetarians and 1.1 tons for vegans.

Related Content:

• Paul McCartney Calls on COP26 Delegates to Adopt Plant-Based Treaty
• Moby Calls on COP26 Leaders to Negotiate Plant-Based Treaty
• British Town Signs Plant-Based Treaty and Encourages Residents to Go Vegan
• The City of Boynton Beach Endorses Plant-Based Treaty
• Plant-Based Diet Linked To Reduced Risk of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women, New Study Finds

Easy Ways to Help the Planet:

• Eat Less Meat: Download Food Monster, the largest plant-based Recipe app on the App Store, to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy. You can also buy a hard or soft copy of our favorite vegan cookbooks.
• Reduce Your Fast Fashion Footprint: Take the initiative by standing up against fast fashion Pollution and supporting sustainable and circular brands like Tiny Rescue that raise awareness around important issues through recycled zero-waste clothing designed to be returned and remade over and over again.
• Support Independent Media: Being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!
• Sign a Petition: Your voice matters! Help turn petitions into victories by signing the latest list of must-sign petitions to help people, animals, and the planet.
• Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest news and important stories involving animals, the environment, sustainable living, food, health, and human interest topics by subscribing to our newsletter!
• Do What You Can: Reduce waste, plant trees, eat local, travel responsibly, reuse stuff, say no to single-use plastics, recycle, vote smart, switch to cold water laundry, divest from fossil fuels, save water, shop wisely, Donate if you can, grow your own food, volunteer, conserve energy, compost, and don’t forget about the microplastics and microbeads lurking in common household and personal care products!