ProVeg opens Brazilian office to promote plant-rich diets in one of the world’s largest meat-producing countries

NGO has bold plans to highlight benefits of plant-based food in run-up to COP30

Source: Pexels/Tom Fisk

Food awareness organization, ProVeg International, has opened an office in Brazil today to raise awareness of the health and environmental benefits of plant-based food. 

ProVeg Brazil, the very first ProVeg office to open in South America, will work to highlight the huge environmental impact of the country’s animal agriculture industry in the run-up to the 2025 UN Climate Summit, COP30, which will be hosted in the Amazonian city of Belém.

“I am thrilled with the opening of our first ever office in South America,” Sebastian Joy, Founding President of ProVeg International, said. “The team has a huge but exciting challenge to promote plant-based diets in Brazil and are very well-placed to raise awareness of the damage caused by the global animal agriculture industry.”

“Brazil is an incredible country and I know many people will be very receptive to ProVeg’s efforts to promote plant-based food. Industrialized animal agriculture has caused much harm in Brazil and we believe there is a real thirst for action to change the food system for the better,” Joy said.

Brazil is currently one of the three largest producers globally of chicken, beef and pork and, according to the World Resources Institute, one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. Of this output, an estimated 58% of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock production, according to SEEG, a leading greenhouse gas monitoring platform in Latin America

Industry’s impact has been the well-publicised deforestation of some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, including the Amazonian forest and the Cerrado savanna, along with the displacement of indigenous tribes. 

Whilst Brazil is already increasingly moving towards plant-based diets, with some surveys pointing to 14% of the population identifying as vegetarian1, the country is the third largest cattle producer and second largest beef exporter in the world, according to the USDA.

The Brazilian team

ProVeg Brazil will be led by Aline Baroni, a former journalist who covered politics, worker’s rights, food systems, the environment, and animal rights for the Brazilian media, public and third sectors. The Brazilian team will focus on pushing for plant-forward public policies and working alongside the Brazilian government to have food systems as one of the main themes during COP30 next year.

“We’ve seen how ProVeg has been successful across Europe and we are keen to promote plant-based food initiatives in Brazil, as well as influence public policies that could impact millions of people,” Baroni said.

“Here in Brazil, we are also at the sharp end of many of the environmental problems caused by global animal agriculture, particularly deforestation. So we will be helping to raise awareness of how a shift to plant-based foods can allow everyone to play a key role in stopping deforestation in our country, as well as making people healthier and contributing to food security, which is sadly a major issue for us. This is particularly important as we approach 2025 when the COP30 climate summit will be hosted by Brazil,” Baroni added. 

With the opening of the Brazilian office, ProVeg now has 14 offices worldwide, following the addition of offices in Nigeria and Malaysia in 2023 and Portugal this year. 

ENDS

Footnotes

  1. Ibope Inteligência (2018): Pesquisa de opinião pública sobre vegetarianismo. Available at: https://old.svb.org.br/images/Documentos/JOB_0416_VEGETARIANISMO.pdf. Accessed on 22.04.2024

Notes to Editors

For media inquiries, email Aline Baroni at aline.baroni@proveg.org or Peter Rixon at [email protected]

About ProVeg International

ProVeg International is a food awareness organization with the mission to replace 50% of animal products globally with plant-based and cultivated foods by 2040. Our vision is a world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet. 

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