Sinergia Animal joins letter asking the United Nations to advocate for plant-rich diets

Sinergia Animal signed on June 4 a joint letter supporting the (UNEP) in their commitment to promote more resilient and sustainable around the world. The document is the initiative of a coalition of civil society organizations that have been working on ensuring sustainable and equitable food systems, including Greenpeace, ProVeg, Global Forest Coalition, and Better Food Foundation.

"We urge UNEP to further advocate for plant-rich diets and truly sustainable food systems. This is essential to tackling environmental degradation and climate change, while mitigating the risks of pandemics and moving towards more resilient societies and economies," the letter states.

The current Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated the numerous connections between food systems and the outbreak of zoonotic diseases, and that a deep transformation is imperative.

UNEP has tackled these interconnections in its 2016 Frontiers Report. This document highlights deforestation and other land-use changes, antimicrobial resistance, intensified agriculture and livestock production, and climate change as factors that are increasing the risk of zoonotic emergence and that are a direct consequence of resource-intensive diets based on meat.

Millions of people are facing food insecurity due to the Covid-19 crisis, which has made evident the need for a paradigm shift in our food systems to one that is more stable and more sustainable for the environment and public health.

"Current dietary habits, combined with projected population growth to about 10 billion by 2050, will exacerbate risks to people and the planet. So we need to urgently change our farming systems and diets," says Carolina Galvani, CEO of Sinergia Animal.

"This pandemic demonstrates that collective, decisive global action is not only possible but also urgent. This is a window of opportunity to transform our current food system into one that is sustainable, resilient, and provides healthy diets for all without destroying ecosystems, or posing severe risks to wildlife and human beings," she concludes.