Plant-based Food Advocacy

Eat4Change - Companies in Finland advocate for government investment in sustainable food. 

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To reduce the impact that food has on climate, the DEAR project #Eat4Change organised an advocacy campaign ahead of the Finnish April 2023 parliamentary elections. #Eat4Change and 28 organisations called on the new government to invest in plant-based products to enable future national and international market opportunities. 

The starting point was the position paper “The time to invest in plant-based food is now”. The signatories included three of the biggest food processing companies, two of the three biggest food retailer chains, farm-linked companies, and NGOs. #Eat4Change youth ambassadors participated in the advocacy and promoted the campaign via their social media. The advocacy action was also covered by the five major Finnish news media, and politicians and citizens took notice of the positive impacts of plant-based food. 

After the elections, the government had not (yet) started investing in plant-based food. But success came in other ways: a first Finnish NGO network of companies and other organisations that promote plant-based food was officially established in November 2023. The NGO network continues to run campaigns and engage in advocacy work for sustainable food in Finland. With #Eat4Change studies and actions, the network can count on a solid base of knowledge and lessons learned to convincingly communicate the economic and employment benefits of investing in a plant-based food sector. 

#Eat4Change actions also inspired World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Sweden to plan a similar advocacy campaign in their country. 

More info, sights & sounds: article about the Plant Based Foods Finland Network.

For an overview of DEAR Programme impact, read other Stories of Change.

^{Picture: ©EU - Eat4Change - WWF - Heidi Volotinen, 2023}