Vegan entrepreneur and charity campaigner Heather Mills is set to appear at the Bonn Climate Conference in Germany this week to call for a global Plant Based Treaty. Advocates for the treaty will set up a food truck at the entrance to the conference, giving out 2000 free hotdogs donated by Mills and her plant-based food company, VBites.
At the conference, Mills will urge world leaders to make policy changes such as shifting subsidies from animal agriculture to the plant-based sector. She will also meet the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to discuss a pathway to 100% plant-based catering at future climate conferences such as COP29.
18,000 people have already signed the Plant Based Treaty’s petition calling for all food served at COP29 to be plant-based, building on the “huge improvement” in sustainable catering seen at COP28. To ensure the food served at COP29 is well-received, Mills has offered to hold cookery training workshops ahead of the conference.
“Countries should use the Bonn Climate Convention and COP29 to make solid commitments and create a roadmap to transition away from animal farms to plant-based production to secure an affordable, self-sufficient food system,” said Mills. “It’s been scientifically proven that you can make a profit growing plants instead of growing animals with plants to feed humans. We need a common sense approach at climate conferences.”
Woman of the Year
The news comes after Mills was named Woman of the Year at this year’s Vegan Women Summit, which took place from May 9-10 in West Hollywood, California. She was recognized as a “pioneering figure in the vegan movement worldwide” for her decades of advocacy, after presenting one of the summit’s main keynote speeches.
The past year has been challenging for Mills; VBites entered administration in December 2023, and she was only able to save the company after purchasing its assets “at great personal cost”. However, Mills told vegconomist that she was “delighted to be back at the reins”, noting that the company had already returned to break even.
“Spending time at VWS with so many like-minded people was inspiring,” said Mills. “Thank you, Vegan Women Summit, for bringing us all together to remind us we have to stand united in our voice and our messaging if we are going to make any difference.”
