Cape Town environmental film festival to showcase link between our eating habits and climate change

By: ProVeg International on 21 July 2022

Local food awareness organisation ProVeg South Africa will host a two-week-long environmental film festival to educate, enlighten and entertain viewers about the link between our food choices and climate change ProVeg South Africa, the local branch of the international non-profit food awareness organisation ProVeg International, is hosting its first-ever environmental film festival as part of its Diet Change Not Climate Change (DCNCC) campaign, sporting documentaries never before screened in South Africa, about the link between our diets and the environment.

“There is so much information out there about how our diets impact the environment, but this information isn’t shared as wide publicly as it should be,” Donovan Will, Country Director of ProVeg South Africa, said.

“The Diet Change Not Climate Change film festival will be an amazing opportunity for the public to get this information from credible research-based sources but still in an entertaining format.”

The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has sounded the alarm code red for humanity. Global temperatures have already spiked by 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels. To limit the temperature rise by 1.5°C to avoid the most catastrophic effects of a warming planet, humanity has to take bolder and bigger actions. But research from the IPCC also shows that an increase in plant-based diets would massively reduce emissions.

The livestock sector contributes to at least 14.5% of all greenhouse gases (GHGs), with a more recent estimation of close to 20% of total emissions.1 It also causes tremendous damage to our forests, with 80% of the world’s deforestation2 caused by our current food system and nearly 70% of cleared land in the Amazon is used for cattle grazing.3 Crowded and unhealthy conditions in industrial animal farms increase the risk of zoonotic disease and pandemics. However, only 1% of climate change spending is used to tackle the impacts of animal agriculture.

The encouraging news, though, is that switching to a plant-based diet could reduce your food-related emissions by up to 50%,4 and the Diet Change Not Climate Change Film Festival aims to show people how to implement this change and how it will restore our planet.

Through ProVeg’s DCNCC campaign, it aims to:

• Establish the environmental impact of our food choices, especially animal agriculture, as a major pillar on the global climate agenda
• Advocate for a systemic shift toward a plant-centered diet as an effective climate mitigation strategy in climate change discussions
• Secure a more sustainable future for the planet, people and animals through diet change. 

The films chosen for the Diet Change Not Climate Change Film Festival all carry the message that, not only is a more plant-based diet better for your health and animal rights, but it also tastes wonderful and has the smallest impact out of all possible diets on the environment, without counting your carbs.

The festival’s headlining film, Eating Our Way To Extinction, narrated by Oscar-winning actress Kate Winslet, brings across this simple message in a masterful way: our food choices are pushing our world towards total ecological collapse. Eating Our Way To Extinction will be premiered in South Africa on Monday 25 July 2022 at The Labia Theatre in Gardens, Cape Town, one of the oldest independent movie theatres in the country.

Other films in the line-up include:

• I Am Greta
• Milked: White Lies in Dairy Land
• Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret
• H.O.P.E. What You Eat Matters
• Food Choices

The full screening schedule is as follows:

“The Labia is proud to partner with ProVeg South Africa on this important initiative, and hopes that this festival will be the first of many more in the future,” Ludi Kraus, managing member of The Labia Theatre, said.

All proceeds from the film festival will go to creating public awareness about climate change in South Africa, as well as policy work with the South African government.  Tickets are available on Quicket and will be sold at the door of The Labia Theatre.

What else ProVeg South Africa and ProVeg International have accomplished through its Diet Change Not Climate Change Campaign:

2021:

• Digital billboards in 78 locations over 4 provinces. With a TV advert airing on eNCA, eTV and SABC (see in Press Pack).
• 2021: ProVeg International attends United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland
• ProVeg International handed over a DCNCC petition with over 70 000 signatures at COP26.

2022:

• United Nations (UN) acknowledges the link between environmental damage and animal welfare for the first time at United Nations Environment Assembly.
• ProVeg South Africa attends the Global Climate Strike in the City of Cape Town.
• 10 inspiring youth climate advocates from around the world join ProVeg’s DCNCC youth board.
• ProVeg South Africa sends comments on the Climate Change Bill in May 2022.
• ProVeg South Africa shares weekly authentic African plant-based recipes to celebrate COP on African soil.

Upcoming:

• ProVeg International will host a food systems hub in collaboration with experts at COP27 in Egypt.

About ProVeg International

ProVeg is an international food awareness organisation working to transform the global food system by replacing conventional animal-based products with plant-based and cultured alternatives.

ProVeg works with international decision-making bodies, governments, food producers, investors, the media, and the general public to help the world transition to a society and economy that are less dependent on animal agriculture and more sustainable for humans, animals, and the planet.

ProVeg has permanent-observer status with the UNFCCC, is accredited for UNEA, and has received the United Nations’ Momentum for Change Award.