(Climate-Friendly Production Treaty)
Come 26-28 May 2023, a renowned pro-climate and animal welfare advocate will host delegates, particularly stakeholders in the food systems and energy sector in a summit in Lagos and Ibadan, respectively, in Nigeria, to commemorate the 2nd edition of his annual Vegfest Nigeria, under the platform of Animal Protection Organization of Nigeria.
The maiden edition was held in the month of May 2022, with the theme ‘transitioning to a vegan lifestyle’. It will be recalled that the 2022 edition was held in the city of Ibadan, which attracted more than one million Nigerians. The event was categorized into various programs namely: Public awareness march, radio campaign, novelty match, online conference, awards, and food sampling.
The event drew together delegates from all works of life who are traditional non-vegans. The objective of the festival is to promote a healthy lifestyle through diet change while also observing environmental and social factors affecting both humans and animals. The fest brought together notable vegan advocates and businesses in Nigeria and beyond, whose participation raised the benchmark of the VegFest.
The speakers at the VegFestwere: Mariquita Solis, a US-based vegan mastery teacher, Mrs. Bola Adeyanju, CEO of Veggie Victory, Amanda Sorrenson – Director of Vegan Society of Aotearoa, Annie Vanderheuvel – nutritionist, Dr. Vidya – medical practitioner, and Iye Bako – vegan food chef, and Mr. Kola Badmus – Director Planning, Research and Statistic, Oyo state ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The 2023 edition of Vegfest Nigeria, as noted by the creative director will target stakeholders. “when I say stakeholders, I mean everyone connected to the system and the consumers. Veganism has a large scope. This is not just about individual diet changes. It is also about system change. If we must sincerely help our climate and the animals, we need full cooperation from corporations, governments, and consumers. At the intersection of these three are animal welfare, human well-being, and climate issues.” Said Joseph Odika – the Creative director of Vegfest Nigeria. According to the climate advocate, the earth’s temperature has reached its full stretch, and an additional increase in the earth’s temperature could be catastrophic.
Vegfest Nigeria 2022 Achievements
Measuring outcomes is key in determining smart objectives. Vegfest Nigeria has indeed recorded some remarkable achievements. In a dialogue between Vogue Inspired Magazine and Mr. Joseph Odika – we gathered that over one million Nigerians were reached during the Vegfest. The number was pooled together from individuals reached through the various activities which the Vegfest provided. Another remarkable achievement was the partnership with the South-Western state ministry of education, which granted his organization access to develop training resources on animal welfare and environmental studies to teach students at primary and secondary levels.
In addition to this, The Federal Ministry of Environment has also given recognition to his work. This will further solidify his collaboration with the ministry and also open windows of opportunities to secure partnerships with key government and international organizations with similar objectives.
Since the VegFest, he has also been involved in helping individuals in the mastery of a plant-based lifestyle through in-person, capacity-building training, where he has been able to graduate over 15 trainees.
The need for urgent action
Towards the end of 2022, the United Nations under the platform of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheihk – Egypt, declared a ‘climate emergency’ and charged nations to implement the UNFCCC smart action plan. According to the UN Climate Change report, the predetermined global ambitions to reduce the earth’s temperature or keep it at 1.5 degrees Celsius are far away from getting the world on track to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. According to the report, the outcome of all national NDC frameworks is below the actionable bar. Although some significant efforts were made by some nations, nevertheless, the overall ambition is near-zero.
Vegfest Nigeria 2023 objective
According to the climate advocate, Vegfest Nigeria 2023 will draw the attention of stakeholders, particularly those involved in food systems to the UNFCCC, UNDP, and the UN Climate Change agenda. The agenda is quite simple and all nations of the world have been saddled with the responsibility to reverse the global climate emergency by ensuring they act swiftly on the following recommendations:
“Since agriculture is responsible for over 50% GHG emissions (methane, carbon, and black carbon) resulting from forest clearing and bush burning, factory farming, and plant biomass, nations are advised to provide climate-smart-low-cost interventions that will cut down half the size of all carbon and methane emissions and ensure policy formulation around this framework, if the world must meet the 2030 reduction threshold.
‘Vegfest Nigeria Recommendation: the above recommendation is good, nevertheless, we can derive smarter interventions from improving soil quality for re-planting rather than clearing new forest areas and scrap animal agriculture to be replaced with plant-based food only, and research more into plant-based and fermented protein alternatives. Animal agriculture causes pollution and should be replaced quickly with plant-based farming practices only. Plant biomass can be used for soil enrichment without causing pollution of any kind. Bigger plant biomass can be recycled with a whole orchard recycle machine as a no-burn alternative. The recycled biomass can be used to help livelihoods in local communities as a source of fuel for the cookstoves.’
According to a report released by Our World in Data, Food production and supply chains are responsible for over 26% of carbon and methane generation resulting from fossil fuel burning and waste. The United Nation has recommended climate-friendly low carbon technologies and eco-friendly waste management practices by stakeholders and also recommended policies and smart NDC framework around this to ensure resilience. But Vegfest Nigeria’s objective supports this with a different view…
‘Vegfest Nigeria recommendation: Vegfest suggests that food manufacturers should source more plant-based raw materials rather than animals. This measure will avert pollution and at the same time reduce waste drastically. Nigeria contributes to global methane emissions through animal agriculture and landfills which come from waste. Therefore, vegfest Nigeria recommends more plant-based alternatives such as raw materials, and smart waste evacuation, disposal, and recycling techniques – like the waste-to-energy plant currently in use by some states in Nigeria.
These interventions would definitely reverse the triple planetary crisis which is the crises of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.
However, these interventions cannot be implemented if there are no actionable plans and commitment reporting. Vegfest Nigeria, therefore, has enshrined itself with the role to ensure stakeholders rise towards their responsibilities by releasing commitment reports on their websites. This action will be monitored by an app developed by a third-party organization to monitor commitment and fulfillment reports. “While we keep influencing stakeholders to adopt our framework, we shall continue to monitor stakeholders’ implementation plans as recommended by IPCC and UNFCCC frameworks.” Said, Joseph.
Original Story from Vegfest Nigeria 2023 Press Release.
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