Prince William has been urged to add a vegan category to his Earthshot Prize – an initiative that seeks to find solutions to environmental challenges.
The Prince of Wales founded the awards in 2020, with the aim of turning ‘the current pessimism surrounding environmental issues into optimism by celebrating the people and places driving change’.
There are five ‘Earthshots’ (or goals), which the awards seek to address; to protect and restore nature, clean our air, revive our oceans, build a waste-free world, and fix our climate.
Each year between 2021 and 2030, an awards ceremony honours winners in five categories, giving them £1million in prize funding to be used to support and scale innovations which address the five Earthshots.
For example, one of the winners at the last event was east London-based startup Notpla.
It makes plastic-free consumer packaging products from seaweed and plants to replace disposable items like plastic takeaway boxes and cutlery with biodegradable and home compostable versions.
ADVERTISEMENT
Celebrities including Alicia Silverstone, Olivia Colman, Mark Rylance, and Benjamin Zephaniah have signed a letter calling on the royal to advance a plant-based food system. Photo © Albert L. Ortega via Getty Images
Prince William urged to add vegan category
However, while the royal’s initiative has been praised by many, some have noted a major omission from Earthshot – the acknowledgement of how harmful animal agriculture is on the planet.
In an open letter to Prince William, vegan organisation GenV tackled this topic, calling on the royal to advance a plant-based food system.
According to the letter: “Producing food through animals is inefficient, wasteful, dangerous, and driving us towards climate catastrophe.
“It is the cause of unimaginable and unnecessary suffering for billions of animals, of zoonotic diseases, and dangerous antibiotic-resistant diseases.
“Furthermore, it works against every Earthshot goal on your list. That’s why we must revolutionise our broken food system if we want to save our planet.
“Animal agriculture uses 80 per cent of all farmland and 41% of all freshwater. It also produces nearly 60 per cent of agricultural emissions, and it is the leading cause of wildlife extinction, deforestation and loss of biodiversity, yet it produces less than 18 per cent of all calories consumed globally.
“At the present rate of growth, it will be responsible for half of the world’s greenhouse gas by 2030.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Advance a Plant-Based Food System
And the organisation went even further, putting its money where its mouth is, and offering the additional £1 million it would cost to add a sixth Earthshot.
According to the letter: “With innovation in plant-based foods and cultivated meat advancing rapidly, NGOs working to support public and private behaviour-change initiatives, and decision-makers at all levels piloting and enacting policies that support a transition to more planet-friendly food systems, the potential to positively transform our world through diet is too great to ignore.
“Yet the people behind these solutions are not receiving the recognition they deserve, nor the support they need to create systemic change and global impact.”
For these reasons, GenV added, it is ‘respectfully asking’ the prince to introduce a Sixth Earthshot Prize: Advance a Plant-Based Food System.
Furthermore, the organisation added, if he agrees, it will ‘provide the £1 Million Earthshot Award prize fund for the inaugural Advance a Plant-Based Food System category winner’.
The letter was co-signed by a number of celebrities including Alicia Silverstone, Olivia Colman, Mark Rylance, and Benjamin Zephaniah among others.
According to reports, Kensington Palace has declined to comment.
Do you know how much animal agriculture harms the planet? Check out these 6 surprising ways veganism helps the environment
Featured photo © Cameron Smith/Stringer via Getty Images
