Daily Harvest Launches Ads to Raise Awareness About Food Choices and Climate

Daily Harvest is taking the company’s nutritionally-motivated message to the next level. The food subscription service just launched its newest ad campaign nationwide, setting out to boost consumer awareness about how damaging our food system is to the environment. The campaign highlights how the current food production practices, especially by "factory farming," impacts people, animals, and the planet. Daily Harvest is putting its money where its mouth is with full-page ads in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times showing plant foods like papayas, with the tagline "Bite Me."

The copy on each ad explains the campaign's broader point: “Big Food doesn’t protect people or the planet,” the ad reads. “But there is a solution. More sustainably sourced fruit and vegetables. What we eat and how we grow it can either keep fueling the climate and health crises or fix them. The seed to a sustainable future begins with our food.”

In addition to the full-page newspaper ads, Daily Harvest is taking its campaign to the government’s home turf. Starting this month, the company plans to project different images onto the US Department of Agriculture DC headquarters. The projections will protest current standards for food production and advocate for more plant-centric and sustainable practices.

The campaign is motivated by the growing concern for the climate crisis. Nearly one-third of all greenhouses generated by manmade sources are attributed to food production, and of that, 57 percent stems from meat production. By moving away from meat and dairy and focusing on a plant-based diet, consumers can help dial back the damage to the planet and help slow climate change. Daily Harvest proposes that the food system could eventually be a benefit the environment if we all ate plant-based since this would help to reverse some of the damage we are already witnessing.

“What we eat and how it’s grown are connected to human and planetary health,” Daily Harvest CEO and Founder Rachel Drori said. “However, today’s conventional food system depends on synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and is depleting our soil, polluting our water, and is harmful to our bodies and planet.”

Daily Harvest claims that direct action from consumers, companies, and the government could help overturn the damage done to the environment, slowing down the worsening climate crisis. A research study from the Rondale Institute shows that a global switch to regenerative agriculture could stop 100 percent of the annual manmade CO2 emissions. The report states that currently, less than 1 percent of farmland is organic.

While Daily Harvest’s company model supports organic food and plant-centric eating, the company decided that action needed to be taken to higher levels in order to be effective. The new campaign will petition for new forms of the agricultural process while condemning current wasteful and environmentally damaging practices.

“For five years, Daily Harvest has been making it easier for people to eat more whole, organic produce every day and we’re working directly with farmers to give them market certainty as they make the leap to go organic and invest in cover crops and biodiversity,” Drouri continued. “But if we want to get serious about a healthier, more sustainable food system that’ll keep people and the planet healthy, we need everyone to do more. That starts with change at the highest levels of government and industry.”

The food delivery company is expressing urgency as calls to action begin to surmount against the international governments. From the Plant-Based Treaty to Moby’s campaign against world leaders, organizations have criticized world governments for overlooking plant-based food as a viable solution. One recent study found that meatless diets produce 59 percent fewer emissions than non-vegetarian diets, highlighting the need to minimize meat and dairy products as a major greenhouse gas emitter.

Following an extremely successful year, Daily Harvest announced that after its Series D funding round, the company’s total valuation is $1.1 billion. Currently, the company offers more than 100 items across 10 different food categories with plans to continue product expansion and distribution with the investment package.

The company’s success is accompanied by consisted activism for the environment, but also in a variety of other donor programs. Last summer, The company hosted a campaign that matched donations up to $50,000 for teachers nationwide. The initiative aimed to promote projects that focused on health, wellness, and nutrition by giving teachers access to delicious and nutrient-rich foods.