Los Angeles Becomes the Largest US City to Endorse the Plant Based Treaty

Los Angeles City Council has today voted unanimously to endorse the Plant Based Treaty, making LA the largest city in the United States to back the global campaign to tackle the climate crisis through food.

The resolution was introduced on September 6 by Councilmembers Paul Koretz and Marqueece Harris-Dawson. As well as endorsing the treaty, it recommends that the US government make plant-based solutions a centrepiece of its greenhouse gas emissions policy. It now goes to Mayor Eric Garcetti for his sign-off.

The Plant Based Treaty is modeled on the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and is built on three principles: Relinquish, Redirect and Restore. That means freezing the expansion of animal agriculture, promoting a shift to healthy plant-based diets and rewilding land. It already has the backing of 19 cities, 59,000 individuals, five Nobel laureates and more than 1,800 NGOs, community groups and businesses.

Councilmember Koretz said:

This landmark resolution marks a vital cultural shift as Americans prioritize both combating climate change and improving their health. As over 2,200 municipalities did with climate emergency declarations, I invite other cities to join us and endorse the Plant Based Treaty.

The timing is no accident. The vote comes just ahead of the C40 World Mayors Summit in Buenos Aires (October 19 to 21), and LA is now the second C40 city to endorse the treaty after Buenos Aires itself signed up on August 9.

And it's a big statement from a big dairy state. California is home to the largest dairy industry in the US, with around 1,400 dairies and 1.7 million cows, and according to the California Air Resources Board animal farming is responsible for more than half of California's methane emissions. Methane traps far more heat than carbon dioxide in the short term, which makes cutting it one of the fastest ways to slow warming.

As journalist and UnChainedTV founder Jane Velez-Mitchell put it, "LA is historically known to lead the nation in environmental trends. What happens in LA spreads to the rest of the world." We hope she's right.

The science backs LA up. The 37 scientists behind the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet say the world must halve red meat, and back in 2016 24 members of the European Parliament called for a shift to plant-based diets. Just last month Haarlem became the first city to ban meat adverts and New York City's public hospitals made plant-based meals the default.

City by city, the world is coming round to plants.