Golden Globes Serves a 100% Plant-Based Menu, a First for a Major Awards Show

The Golden Globes served a completely plant-based dinner to Hollywood's biggest names last night, becoming the first major awards show to take meat, fish and dairy off the menu entirely.

The 77th Golden Globe Awards were held on Sunday, January 5 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which runs the show, asked for the change only weeks before the ceremony, after the hotel's executive chef Matthew Morgan had already planned a fish main course for nearly 1,300 guests.

HFPA president Lorenzo Soria was clear that this was about the climate. He told the Associated Press:

"If there's a way we can, not change the world, but save the planet, maybe we can get the Golden Globes to send a signal and draw attention to the issue about climate change."

"The food we eat, the way we grow the food we eat, the way we dispose of the food is one of the large contributors to the climate crisis."

He added, speaking to reporters: "We don't think we'll change the world with one meal, but we decided to take small steps to bring awareness."

Guests started with a chilled golden beet soup, followed by king oyster mushroom 'scallops' with a wild mushroom risotto and roasted baby purple and green Brussels sprouts and carrots. Water came in glass bottles from Icelandic Glacial, as the HFPA also ditched single-use plastic.

Chef Morgan admitted the request caught his team off guard: "It was a little shocking when first mentioned, because of being very close to the actual Globes and having already decided on a menu. But once we thought about it and the message that it sent, we were really excited about it."

The night's most fitting moment came when vegan actor Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor in a Drama for Joker and opened his speech by thanking the HFPA: "First, I'd like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press for recognizing and acknowledging the link between animal agriculture and climate change. It is a very bold move making tonight plant-based and it really sends a powerful message." (We'd like to think the risotto helped.)

The science backs him up. The largest analysis of farming's impact ever carried out, led by Joseph Poore at the University of Oxford and published in Science, found that meat and dairy provide just 18% of our calories but use 83% of the world's farmland and produce 60% of agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions. Poore told the Guardian that a vegan diet is "probably the single biggest way" to reduce your impact on the planet.

This is the latest sign of the plant-based revolution Google predicted. Last year The Economist declared 2019 the year of the vegan, The Game Changers became the best-selling documentary in iTunes history and 37 scientists told the world to halve its red meat intake. Now Hollywood is putting plants on the plate too.

The future is looking brighter.