These cities do not ban meat. They just want you to eat more plants.

Amsterdam is not giving up on Gouda. Los Angeles eateries will continue to serve combinations of bacon, chicken, egg and blue cheese that are essential to Cobb’s signature salads. And Scots can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Edinburgh has no plans to ban haggis.

Still, officials in each of these cities want people to consume less dairy and meat. They are signatories of the Vegetable Convention, which was launched in 2021 with the aim of drawing attention to the role of greenhouse gases released in food production.

The treaty is not binding and its impact varies enormously, ranging from just sending messages to concrete plans to reduce the amount of dairy and meat served in institutions and schools and reduce food waste.

But local leaders who defended the treaty said it helped strengthen their efforts to encourage plant consumption for both climate and health reasons, while also sending an urgent message.

“In Edinburgh we have quite ambitious climate plans, whether it’s energy or modernizing public transport, but we missed a key part of this, which is food,” said Ben Parker, member of the Scottish Green Party, at the meeting in Edinburgh. The municipal council, which approved the treaty in early 2023. “Plant-based foods have a huge role to play in reducing carbon emissions.”

The treaty emerged from the Animal protection movement. As climate change worsened, one of the founders, Anita Krajnc, became dismayed at how little both heat-trapping emissions and the ecological destruction associated with meat figured in global climate talks.

They and other activists have modeled the Plant Based Treaty on the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls on governments to halt new oil, gas and coal projects. In addition to encouraging people to eat more plants, the Plant Based Treaty calls for no new land to be cleared for livestock farming and for ecosystems and forests to be restored.

The first municipality to sign up was Boynton Beach, Florida, in September 2021. “It’s about raising awareness around individual choices and the benefits of eating more plants,” said Rebecca Harvey, the city’s former sustainability coordinator.

Since then, twenty-five other municipalities have joined, including Los Angeles, Amsterdam and more than a dozen cities in India.

Amsterdam spokesperson Rory van den Bergh said the city is trying to change eating habits and aims for 60 percent of the protein consumed by residents to come from plants by 2030.

Other signatories include Nobel laureates, politicians, scientists, doctors, athletes and celebritiesincluding Joaquin Phoenix, Mara Rooney, Alicia Silverstone, Moby and Paul McCartney and his daughters Mary and Stella, who launched the Meat Free Monday campaign in 2009.

Globally, food systems are responsible for a third of the greenhouse gases that warm the planet, with the environmental impact of the meat and dairy industries being particularly high. Livestock farming is responsible for this about a third of methane emissions, which have 80 times the short-term warming power of carbon dioxide.

It is also a water-intensive industry. It takes 2,110 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, 520 gallons of water to produce one pound of cheese, and 410 gallons of water to produce one pound of chicken. By comparison, high-protein lentils require 4 gallons of water per pound.

A 2023 study from the University of Oxford found that compared to high-meat diets, vegan diets resulted in 75 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions, 54 percent less water use and 66 percent less biodiversity loss. The study’s author also calculated that if omnivores in Britain halved their meat intake, it would be equivalent to taking 8 million cars off the road.

Lambeth, one of London’s 32 boroughs, also signed the treaty. Jim Dickson, a councillor, said it fits in with efforts to encourage people to eat more fruit and vegetables to help improve health, along with ‘social prescribing’ programs where isolated individuals got involved in community gardening. The municipality also aims to largely reduce emissions from school meals per plate by switching to more plant-based food.

There has been grumbling. “Some people have said this is clearly a sinister plot to impose a meat tax or a meat ban on locals, or for the nanny state to control people’s diets,” Mr Dickson said, adding that none of it all this was true. And a rural organization has urged Edinburgh City Council to do so withdraw his support of the treaty and said it was ‘anti-agriculture’.

Edinburgh City Council pressed ahead and approved the proposal a Plant Based Treaty action plan in January it became clear that the city was “not trying to eliminate meat and dairy” but was focusing on high-quality, sustainable, locally produced food. “The action plan is about trying to make plant-based food as accessible as possible, and understanding that that’s going to be a journey,” said Mr. Parker, the city councilor.