As the demand for plant-based options steadily grows nationwide, the need for increased market opportunity and fair legislation has become vital for consumers and businesses alike. In an official announcement today, California Plant Based Alliance (CPBA) has established itself as the first state-level political advocacy organization protecting the rights of California consumers and companies making plant-based products.
Created to lobby for fair legislative representation for the plant-based industry, CPBA will sponsor legislative change intended to ensure that California consumers have access to healthy and sustainable plant-based products, and the companies making these products are provided equal access and fair opportunities to succeed in the marketplace.
With the soaring demand for plant-based food and products, CPBA is positioning the agriculture industry to create clean and sustainable jobs for California workers and farmers.
CPBA’s efforts will help ensure that California businesses will be leading the way to meet the demand of the plant-based industry. California-based companies like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Miyoko’s Creamery, and Follow Your Heart are building global brands and exporting California foods across the globe. As the fifth largest global economy with a population of almost 40 million, CPBA’s advocacy role in California is essential.
The advocacy organization’s Founder and President Judie Mancuso was recently featured in the top ten of Orange County Register’s Top 100 Most Influential People of 2019. She is also the Founder and President of Social Compassion in Legislation, a political advocacy organization that continues to experience major successes with animal rights, protection, and welfare bills, which ultimately helped in recognizing a need for a similar group in the plant-based space.
“What we found when advancing and passing plant-based bills in the Capitol, is that the plant-based industry does not have a voice such as the various segments of the animal agriculture industry,” said Mancuso. “We will amplify the burgeoning plant-based industry’s voice in the Capitol to gain equal access to the marketplace and fair regulation. I felt the industry deserved its own special interest group and that is why I decided to create the Alliance.”
Social Compassion in Legislation successfully sponsored two bills specifically that establish need for the protection of rights for California consumers. In 2018, the organization worked with Senator Nancy Skinner on SB 1138, “Ensuring a Plant-Based Meal Option,” requiring hospitals, healthcare facilities and prisons to offer plant-based meals to people in these institutions, which was signed by Governor Jerry Brown. AB 479, which is currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee, would provide extra funding to schools that add or increase the number of vegan entrées and plant-based milks on their menus. The bill is joint-authored by Assembly members Adrin Nazarian and Ash Kalra and co-sponsored by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Social Compassion in Legislation.
“We have seen California guide the way time and time again in establishing policies and programs to promote sustainability, and we are able to accomplish these goals because there is a growing demand for accountability and especially for the reduction of our impact on the environment,” said Assemblymember Kalra. “Now is the time to continue to build on the momentum of rising consumer and business consciousness by working together to expand understanding and awareness about how plant-based strategies help to both foster better health and combat climate change.”
CPBA is comprised of a range of California companies and nonprofit organizations and is optimistic about growing its coalition. Members of the organization’s board include Judie Mancuso, Nick Sackett, Director of Legislative Affairs for Social Compassion of Legislation; Christina Galioto, impact investor and fashion model; Asher Brown, founder and president of Pollution.tv; Nic Adler, restaurateur and VP of Regional Festivities of Goldenvoice; Jenna Cassidy, Marketing Executive, Consultant and Vitality Coach; and Shelly Bennecke, Managing Partner, Laguna Ventures LLC.
CPBA board member Nic Adler is considered to be one of the leading voices in the vegan/plant-based food movement. He is the Culinary Director of Coachella and the VP of Regional Festivals of Goldenvoice, creator of the very popular festival Eat Drink Vegan, as well as the restaurateur behind multiple plant-based restaurants in the Los Angeles area.
“There has been a huge cultural shift toward plant-based eating and it is time that our legislation caught up with consumers. Currently, no official legislative protections exist for plant-based food producers or consumers, and the California Plant Based Alliance is determined to provide a voice for this movement as it continues to become mainstream,” said Adler.
The California Plant Based Alliance forms at a crucial time of rising consumer consciousness regarding cruelty to animals and the effects that animal farming has on climate change, according to many sources, including this UN Report. Concurrently, consumers are increasingly aware of the detrimental effect of consuming processed animal meat and red meat and the benefits of adopting plant-based diets. According to GMI Insights, the plant-based market is forecasted to more than double from $150 Million USD in 2018 to $320 Million in 2025, and according to the UN Report at current growth rates, the plant-based foods industry will generate $13.3 billion in tax revenues over the next 10 years.
“The consumers have demanded plant-based foods and products in a measure never imagined even a decade ago. Businesses have responded accordingly. Now this growing sector of our economy needs to advocate in our Capitol to ensure equal access to markets and fair manufacturing standards. We are those advocates,” said David Quintana, CPBA Political Director and California lobbyist.
Through legislative change that represents rapidly growing consumer demand for plant-based alternatives across a myriad of industries, from food to clothing to cosmetics, CPBA will have a positive effect on monumental global issues such as: climate change, animal rights, deforestation, and preventable diseases.
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