PLANT-BASED
FOR THE
PLANET

WHY THIS IS SO URGENT

“We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled,” warn the authors of the State of the Climate report.

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“The future of humanity hangs in the balance,” says scientist William Ripple.

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“This is a fight for life,” declares Dr. Genevieve Guenther.

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“We are in a planetary emergency,” confirms James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who first alerted Congress to climate change.

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“Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course,” warned thousands of scientists in a global statement to humanity — a warning they later repeated with even greater urgency.

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“We are in fact already right in the middle of a planetary emergency,” says one of the world’s leading Earth system researchers. “We have precious little time to act.”

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“A global cascade of tipping points is possible,” adds a major scientific review of Earth system risk. “We are in a state of planetary emergency.” Even the IPCC — the most cautious voice in climate science — now uses the language of crisis.

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Time is running out.

But something extraordinary is happening.

Personal Transformation on a Planetary Scale

Most people know our planet is in crisis. Few have understood their role in it.

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You didn’t choose to destroy the environment. You inherited your eating habits from your parents, who inherited them from theirs. You were shaped by cultural identity — “meat makes you strong” — by societal norms, peer pressure, subsidized prices, school nutrition programs, restaurant menus, media messaging, and decades of advertising designed to make meat and dairy seem normal, natural, even necessary.

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You were guided into this behavior — actively through marketing, passively through socialization. From childhood, you were taught that consuming animals was not just acceptable but essential. This wasn’t your fault.

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But the impact is staggering.

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The consumption of meat and dairy is the leading force behind the destruction of nature on Earth — wiping out forests, polluting rivers, driving wild animals to extinction, and turning living ecosystems into lifeless fields. It’s responsible for 91% of Amazon rainforest loss and 70% of all freshwater use. A single gallon of milk requires over 1,000 gallons of water. Dairy herds emit massive amounts of methane — a greenhouse gas over 80 times more potent than CO₂ — and just one large dairy farm produces as much waste as a major city. Industrial animal agriculture now covers three-quarters of global farmland — land that once belonged to the wild.

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Each year, more than 70 billion animals on land and over 2 trillion animals in the ocean are killed — with devastating consequences for biodiversity, water systems, and the stability of life on Earth.

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When the world shifts to a plant-based diet, we will return land the size of continents to nature — allowing forests to regrow, wildlife to recover, and the web of life to heal before it’s too late. We will relieve pressure on ecosystems, reclaim our freshwater, and drastically reduce the risk of pandemics, antibiotic resistance, and food system collapse.

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Now you know. And that changes everything.

You expected others to act — but you were the problem. Now you’re the solution.

The Answer Was Always There

89% of people on Earth already want urgent climate action. But for a long time, no one knew what to do.

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They do now.

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Plant-Based for the Planet is the global movement of billions who do the one thing that saves us all — when we all do it together.

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It’s a self-sustaining cascade on a planetary scale — the path of least resistance.

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When just the world’s 1.5 billion vegetarians, flexitarians, and climate-conscious people stop consuming meat and dairy, we reach critical mass — and a plant-based planet falls into place.

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We return land the size of continents to nature. The crisis ends right there. Just in time.

The Solution That Changes Everything

The answer isn’t complex. It’s been hiding in plain sight.

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For too long, you expected “them” to fix it — while you were part of the problem. Now you become the solution.

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Plant-Based for the Planet is a global dugnad — a voluntary collective effort where people unite to complete a shared task for the greater good. It’s the kind of grassroots coordination that built villages, saved harvests, and moved mountains. And now it will save the world.

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You don’t need to be an activist to join. Just someone who cares what happens next.

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This isn’t about lifestyle. This is about survival.

How We Reach Critical Mass

The largest-ever scientific analysis of food systems shows that shifting away from animal products is the single most effective action you can take for the environment.

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Our strategy follows the science of social change. We focus on the 1.5 billion people already willing to act — vegetarians, flexitarians, and climate-conscious eaters.

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Once this population reaches critical mass, we trigger a self-sustaining global cascade.

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This cascade rapidly returns 75% of all agricultural land to nature. Forests regrow. Ecosystems heal. Species recover. The crisis ends — just in time.

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We’re not building infrastructure. We’re building momentum through:

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• Local communities: Your neighbors join when they see you leading

• Social networks: Friends follow friends, not advertisements

• Cultural influencers: Trusted voices spread the message

• Coordinated timing: Visible global action sparks rapid participation

Why This Works When Nothing Else Has

This is humanity’s first people-led climate solution at planetary scale.

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It works because it’s designed around how change actually spreads — through relationships, identity, and our deep need to protect what we love.

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We don’t try to convince you to care. We show you that you’re not alone — and already have the power to act.

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The dugnad spreads through the oldest system of coordination on Earth: people inspiring people. Every person who joins becomes a catalyst. Every community becomes a branch of the movement.

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This is grounded in diffusion science — the study of how ideas and behaviors spread. When we make plant-based action:

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• Visible — you see others doing it

• Simple — clear steps you can take

• Meaningful — tied to the survival of life on Earth

• Social — shared with people you trust

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Then personal choices become collective action.

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And collective action becomes unstoppable.

The Moment of Truth

The dugnad has begun.

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In partnership with leading organizations, trusted voices, and communities worldwide, this becomes humanity’s most decisive response to climate and ecological breakdown.

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This isn’t supporting a cause. This is participating in a turning point — the moment when billions realize we are the ones we’ve been waiting for, and we act on that truth together.

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We are moving beyond dialogue toward action. Not someday. Now.

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This is how you save humanity.

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At the Academy of Fashion Foundation (AOFF) — charitable arm of the Academy of Fashion Arts and Sciences, known for its vegan principles and leadership in fashion — we envision a thrivable future. Instead of yet another incremental attempt to do some good, we're going all the way, targeting the very core of the problem with a strategy that actually works.

The Academy of Fashion Foundation has catalyzed Plant-Based for the Planet, a decentralized, data-informed initiative designed to meet the climate and ecological crisis at its root.

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To support the catalytic team: Tax-deductible donations may be made through their fiscal sponsor, A Well-Fed World (EIN 27-0865905), on behalf of the Academy of Fashion Foundation.

Scientific Foundation

Sociology of Harmful Food Norms

• Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
• Adams, C. J. (1990). The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory. New York: Continuum.
• Nestle, M. (2002). Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Pollan, M. (2006). The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin Press.
• Johnston, J., & Baumann, S. (2010). Foodies: Democracy and Distinction in the Gourmet Foodscape. New York: Routledge.
• Freedman, P. (Ed.). (2007). Food: The History of Taste. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Stibbe, A. (2004). Health and the social construction of morality: A critical perspective on health education. Health Education Research, 19(4), 460–470. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg046
• Simon, M. (2013). Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back. New York: Nation Books.

Climate Emergency

• IPCC. (2022). Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change (Working Group III Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Cambridge University Press.
• Steffen, W., Rockström, J., Richardson, K., Lenton, T. M., Folke, C., Liverman, D., … & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2018). Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(33), 8252–8259. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1810141115
• Lenton, T. M., Rockström, J., Gaffney, O., Rahmstorf, S., Richardson, K., Steffen, W., & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2019). Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against. Nature, 575(7784), 592–595. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03595-0

Food Systems Impact

• Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), 987–992. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0216
• Benton, T. G., Bieg, C., Harwatt, H., Pudasaini, R., & Wellesley, L. (2021). Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss. London: Chatham House.
• Willett, W., Rockström, J., Loken, B., Springmann, M., Lang, T., Vermeulen, S., … & Murray, C. J. L. (2019). Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. The Lancet, 393(10170), 447–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4
• Veiga, J. B., Tourrand, J.-F., Poccard-Chapuis, R., Bursztyn, M., Kato, K., Faminow, M., & Filho, E. P. (2002). Cattle ranching in the Amazon: Trends, challenges and strategies. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
• Worldwatch Institute. (2004). State of the World 2004: Special Focus: The Consumer Society. Washington, DC: W. W. Norton & Company.
• Faunalytics. (2018). Global Animal Slaughter Statistics and Charts. (Compiled by Sanders, B.). https://faunalytics.org/global-animal-slaughter-statistics-and-charts/
• Mood, A., & Brooke, P. (2010). Estimating the number of fish caught in global fishing each year. Fishcount.org.uk. https://fishcount.org.uk/fish-count-estimates
• USEPA. (2004). Risk Assessment Evaluation for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=P1004M6I.TXT

Public Support

• André, P., Shadle, C., Oh, S., et al. (2024). Global survey of climate attitudes. Unpublished working paper (dataset available through 89percent.org).
• UNDP. (2021). Peoples’ Climate Vote: Results from the largest ever survey of public opinion on climate change. United Nations Development Programme. https://www.undp.org/publications/peoples-climate-vote
• UNDP. (2024). Peoples’ Climate Vote II: 2024 Global Report. United Nations Development Programme. [forthcoming or link]
• Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., et al. (2023). Yale Program on Climate Change Communication: Global Warming’s Six Americas. Yale University. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/

Social Change Science

• Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5th ed.). New York: Free Press.
• Centola, D. (2018). How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
• Nyborg, K., Anderies, J. M., Dannenberg, A., et al. (2016). Social norms as solutions. Science, 354(6308), 42–43. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf8317

PHASED EXECUTION PLAN

PHASE 1: LAYING THE FOUNDATION

PHASE 2: SEEDING THE NETWORK

PHASE 3: ACTIVATING EXPONENTIAL GROWTH

PHASE 4: CONSOLIDATION AND CULTURAL SHIFT

WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT

• No policy petition. We’re not asking governments to act.
• No tech dependency. The solution already exists.
• No barriers. It’s accessible, immediate, and personal.
• No more blame-shifting. Everyone has power. Everyone has responsibility.

This is the first truly people-led climate solution on a planetary scale.

It spreads not by permission but by conviction — through clarity, simplicity, and our shared instinct to protect what we love.

WHAT WE NEED

To achieve planetary scale with minimal friction, this dugnad is designed for maximum impact at minimum cost.

It will be powered by:

• AI-assisted translation and outreach
• Decentralized content sharing
• Open-source tools
• Global collaboration with existing organizations

We are not building infrastructure. We are building momentum.

Most of the work can be done through automation, distributed volunteerism, and smart systems.

What we do need is catalytic support to:

• Launch and coordinate initial translation and media assets
• Deploy shareable toolkits and localization packages
• Develop lightweight, scalable platforms and community trackers
• Secure partnerships and amplify visibility through trusted global figures

Initial catalytic support of $500,000–$1 million will fund the ignition — not operations — of a chain reaction that sustains and spreads itself.

This is not a donation to a cause. It’s an investment in a turning point — the moment humanity saves itself, together.