Row over vegan Earthshot canapés “misses the wood for the trees”, says vegan charity

• Amazon rainforest deforestation is being driven by growing demand for animal products
• Studies show a global shift to plant-rich and vegan diets could help avert the climate crisis
• Vegan campaigning charity Viva! is calling on COP31 to follow Earthshot’s lead with an all-vegan menu

5 November 2025: Viva!, the UK’s leading vegan campaigning charity, has announced its support for the organisers of the Earthshot Prize 2025 Awards Ceremony following a highly publicised row over the event’s vegan menu.

Now in its fifth year, the Earthshot Prize was launched by HRH Prince William in 2020 to find innovative solutions to the world’s biggest environmental problems. The winners are awarded £1m in funding to help them drive progress and are honoured at a prestigious annual ceremony, which this year takes place in Brazil.

Ahead of the deadline for 2025 entries, the Earthshot Prize highlighted the global environmental damage caused by animal agriculture and identified protein diversification – namely plant-based proteins – as “a solution area that offers exceptional promise”.

However, Brazilian chef and Gastronomic Ambassador of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Saulo Jennings told The New York Times that being asked to create vegan canapés for guests at today’s Rio de Janeiro event was like “asking Iron Maiden to play jazz”, sparking a heated debate over sustainability, indigenous culture and culinary tradition.

With demand for meat and animal feed, primarily beef and soy, a main driver of catastrophic Amazonian deforestation, Viva! says offering vegan food at the Earthshot ceremony is not only appropriate but backed up by scientific evidence. Studies show sustainable diets that exclude animal products significantly decrease land and water use, greenhouse gas emissions and the impact of food production on wildlife.

“The global appetite for beef – and for unsustainable soy destined to be fed to billions of factory farmed animals – is quite literally eating up Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, so moving away from traditional meat-heavy diets is an urgent necessity,” said Laura Hellwig, managing director at Viva!. “We know that going vegan is the single biggest way for consumers to reduce their impact on the planet, so I’m delighted that the organisers of the Earthshot Prize want to showcase delicious and sustainable vegan food.”

Following the row, Jennings has been appointed to cater for the Norwegian and Chinese delegations at the COP30 climate summit, which runs from 10 to 21 November in Belém, Brazil. The chef has confirmed his menu will not be vegan: it will feature the fish at the centre of the Earthshot controversy – the pirarucu – which Jennings claims is “sustainable”.

The organisers of previous COP summits have come under fire for resisting calls to offer only vegan food options, even though there is growing evidence that plant-based diets are better for the environment than diets that include animal products. Only 40 per cent of the food available at COP30 will be vegan or vegetarian, despite the summit’s service website stating that plant-based food “has a substantially lower carbon footprint for those who can make this dietary choice.”

The 700 guests at today’s Earthshot ceremony, meanwhile, will enjoy 100 per cent vegan canapés after all – courtesy of award-winning vegan chef Tati Lund, the owner of Rio de Janeiro’s completely plant-based Org Bistrô.

“If nothing else, the row over the food served at the Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony has sparked important conversations about the need for global action on food and diet,” Hellwig added. “The Earthshot Prize is leading by example by putting plant-based food in the spotlight and it is my sincere hope that COP31 follows suit in 2026 with an all-vegan menu. With the future of our planet hanging in the balance, the time for change is now.”