Eating Better is backed by 25 national organisations concerned with the environment, animal welfare, development, health, social justice, development, faith and consumers
Chef and food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is also a supporter of the alliance, which is calling for government and the food industry to help people adopt a healthier, less meat-heavy diet.
Clare Oxborrow, the chair of Eating Better and Friends of the Earth’s senior food and farming campaigner, said eating less meat and more plant-based food was a “vital, simple step” towards ensuring a growing world population could eat healthily and sustainably.
“Eating Better wants to encourage a culture where we place greater value on the food we eat, the animals that provide it and the people who produce it,” she added. “In short, we need an Eating Better revolution – for food that is fairer, greener and healthier.”
The alliance has been launched at a time when people are becoming more discerning about meat-eating, in the wake of the horsemeat scandal, and following the recommendation from an influential Government committee that people eat less meat.
“At last here are organisations prepared to engage with this this vital issue,” said Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University, London. “Let the debate and the mass behaviour change now rapidly follow. This has to be a high priority for the 21st century.”