Let's get plant based cooking & Vegan Chefs on BBC Television 

Despite having a large range of vegan recipes on its website why is it that the BBC almost never gives plant based recipes or vegan chefs any air time? We think that's something that needs to change ASAP. 

We call on the BBC to:

1. Feature vegan chefs on mainstream cookery programmes, such as Saturday Kitchen and MasterChef The Professionals
2. Substitute recipes given by already well-known chefs with plant based alternatives (instead of always cooking with animal produce)
3. Consider a vegan chef to have their own primetime cookery show, to encourage more people to adopt plant based foods

The number of vegans and those choosing a plant based diet in Britain has skyrocketed by over 40% in 2020, being the diet that showed the most recruits. Approximately 1.5 million people now follow a plant-based diet and that number is growing exponentially.

Yet on BBC television shows we rarely see vegan chefs on cookery programmes or even just "regular chefs" cooking plant based recipes. It's now more important than ever that vegan chefs and plant based cooking feature in existing shows or that we see a modern vegan chef with their own TV show (such as Gaz Oakley, Avant-Garde Vegan who had well over one million followers on YouTube). 

Sir David Attenborough has said that humans should swap meat for a mostly plant-based diet in order to save the natural world. We all need to adopt climate friendly food choices, as we are currently at risk of reaching a climate change tipping point of no return, whilst destroying biodiversity and needlessly slaughtering billions of innocent animals annually.

Educating people of all generations through television entertainment, is essential to promoting healthier diets whilst creating positive change for balanced ecosystems, sustainable habitats and a kinder world for farmed animals, “Every year in the UK approximately 2.6 million cattle, 10 million pigs, 14.5 million sheep and lambs, 80 million fish and 950 million birds are slaughtered for human consumption.”

Foods derived from plant sources are accessible and provide an abundance of choice; including ingredients from fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses, legumes, nuts and meat substitutes such as soy products. It's easy to meet our five-a-day target, achieve a balanced and nutritionally adequate diet, whilst also providing health benefits. These include a lower body mass index (BMI), lower cholesterol levels and a reduced incidence of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even protection from some cancers including prostate and breast cancer. Considering all the plant-based options that replace virtually every ingredient, the odds of a vegan program being a success are very high and the recipes are endless.

If the BBC really wants to help the nation and our planet, it must do more to inform viewers how they can reduce their impact on the environment and one of the most effective and accessible ways to do this us through diet.

Sign this petition!