Moby Asks World Leaders to Make “Plant Based Treaty”

Ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Moby is pleading for world leaders to consider plant-based eating as a forefront solution to the climate crisis. The vegan activist and electronic musician released a video that aims to help negotiate a treaty that highlights the widespread benefits of plant-based agriculture, eating, and consumption for both the planet and individuals. Moby’s call to action is meant to make world leaders consider the massive environmental consequences that arise from the worldwide animal agricultural industry.

The acclaimed artist structured his treaty to coincide with the Plant Based Treaty – a campaign designed as a companion to the Paris Agreement regarding climate change that resituates plant-based food systems in the spotlight of the climate conversations. Moby emphasizes the dangerous level of methane emissions directly tied to animal-based food systems.

“We face a climate catastrophe and especially a methane emergency,” Moby said. “We need to strike a global agreement about a shift to a plant-based food system this year at COP26.”

The global conversation concerning climate change shifted heavily to food systems and animal-based agriculture following the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a “Code Red” report that highlighted the dangerously high levels of greenhouse gas emissions coming directly from human behavior. The report detailed how the animal agriculture industry acts as a central factor to the rising carbon and methane emission, presenting dangerous, nearly irreversible damage to the environment. Moby’s campaign aims to help argue the need to discuss plant-based policies at COP26 due to these concerning reports.

“We are on track to hit 1.5C warming around 2030 and 2C warming around 2040,” the artist continued. “This would lead to catastrophic climate impacts such as increased heat waves, more intense hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, food shortages, violent weather patterns, sea-level rise, climate refugees, coral bleachings, and the ongoing mass extinctions of thousands, tens of thousands, and millions of species.

“We need to address all three greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Our biggest chance of limiting temperature rises in the next 25 years is cutting methane.”

In recent years, the animal agricultural industry has faced increasing levels of criticism as its role in the climate crisis becomes unavoidable in the climate change discourse. Another study conducted by Oxford University in 2018 determined that the global meat and dairy industries are directly responsible for 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The significant percentage has since inspired several campaigns working to place plant-based solutions into the conversation including Moby’s treaty and the Plant-Based Treaty.

Similar to Moby’s plea, the Plant-Based Treaty is demanding that world leaders consider the harms coming from the meat and dairy industries worldwide, and then work to implement plant-based solutions. The campaign wants to provide solutions to the environmental damages caused by the current food systems, detailing how to move forward with plant-based agriculture.

“As a companion to the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement, The Plant Based Treaty initiative is a grassroots campaign designed to put food systems at the forefront of combating the climate crisis. Modeled on the popular Fossil Fuel Treaty, the Plant-Based Treaty aims to halt the widespread degradation of critical ecosystems caused by animal agriculture and to promote a shift to healthier, sustainable plant-based diets,” the campaign’s website states. “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 presents three core tenets to its proposal: Relinquish, redirect, and restore. The organization wants to cease animal-based agriculture worldwide, redirect the employment and systems available to plant-based food production, and help rewild and reverse the detrimental consequences to the environment caused by decades of neglect and malpractice.