In October this year Oatly, Upfield (the company behind brands like Violife and Flora), Alpro and The Vegan Society backed the setting up of a new Plant-based Food Alliance UK.
This mirrors the European Alliance for Plant-based Foods, which has been very successful in defending the use of terms like 'burger' and 'milk' being used for vegan food.
The new Alliance will be working to increase the influence of the sector in relation of Government policy such as the upcoming white paper in response to the National Food Strategy, eco-labelling of food, tackling climate change and their work on obesity.
The newly appointed Chief Executive, Marisa Heath, a Founding Member of Vegan Conservatives, stated, "For the Government to meet its objectives in relation to Net Zero and the agreements around deforestation and methane arising from COP26 it needs to make changes to food systems and diets.
"Plant-based diets provide the solutions and we need to encourage a shift through policy in supporting the innovation and growth of this sector. We are seeing a huge increase in flexitarianism as well as veganism and we should be harnessing this to encourage more and more people to choose plant-based options for the benefit of the environment and health."
The Vegan Conservatives are delighted that an Alliance has been formed to unite the voices of the plant-based sector, and encourages the Conservative Government to include them in policy formation to ensure a modern fit for the future food system that will see the UK as a global leader in plant-based food and drink. This will not only be good for the environment but also for the economy and good for export potential.
