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City of Vancouver unanimously passes motion to shift 20% of animal-based purchasing to plant-based, citing VHS report

UPDATE: The below report led to a motion put forward to Vancouver City Council. Many supporters wrote in to support this motion and it made an impact: The motion was passed unanimously by Vancouver City Council! Thank you to everyone who wrote in and to the speakers, Asha Wheeldon (owner of Kula Kitchen), Eleanor Boyle (author of High Steaks: Why and How to Eat Less Meat), and Ryan McKee (founder of Elemeno), who shared their unique perspectives on this topic.


VHS recently launched a new report, “Increasing Plant-Based Purchasing at the Municipal Level”, which examines food purchasing for the City of Vancouver. The report reviews the impact of a shift in municipal food purchasing that reduces the volume of animal-based foods by 20%, to be replaced with plant-based alternatives.

It concludes that by replacing 20% of animal-based food products with plant-based alternatives, the City of Vancouver could expect to:

  • save up to $99,000
  • reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 500 tonnes
  • save the equivalent of nearly 400 farmed animal lives on annual basis

VHS is distributing this report amongst municipal decision-makers at the City of Vancouver and will be highlighting opportunities for its implementation.