Packham's Veganuary call to action

Credit: Chris Shoebridge

Issuing a call to action for fellow broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson to sign up for Veganuary 2025, environmental campaigner Chris Packham says the annual challenge offers ‘a chance for us all to explore the opportunities of a plant-based diet to address some of the problems presented by the meat and dairy industry’.

Referencing Clarkson’s recent ‘bout of ill health’ due to heart disease, Packham invites his colleague to join millions of others around the world who take part in Veganuary each year for its health benefits, offering to personally support him through the challenge.

“[Heart disease'] is a very serious issue,” comments Packham in an Instagram video. “Also, [Clarkson] has expressed a dislike for slaughtering animals. So Jeremy, I’d like to issue a personal invitation: why don’t you take part in Veganuary this year? We know that plant-based is a better diet when it comes to heart disease, and of course it completely eradicates the need to slaughter any animals, so it’s a win-win.

“I’ll personally mentor you through the month if you will join in and you’re most welcome to pop down here for one of Charlotte’s tofu-butter curries. Come on Jeremy, let’s do it. Let’s do it for our health, let’s do it for those animals and let’s do it for the planet.”

Packham, who also acts as an ambassador for organic and Certified Wildlife Friendly brand IBIS Rice, previously told Natural Brands Magazine that his vision for the future includes a world in which plant-based farming becomes the norm and society puts a stop to deforestation for beef and soya production.

A price worth paying?

This year’s campaign was launched with a collection of provocative social media adverts intended to ‘question the strange reality of food norms’. The series suggests that ‘sausages are literally pigs stuffed into their own intestines’, that ‘chicken comes from birds bred to grow so big that often they can barely stand’ and that ‘cows make milk to feed their babies, just like our mothers do’.

One iteration of the ‘Weird?’ series highlights that animal farming is the leading cause of deforestation and asks: “Is this is a price worth paying?”

“Most of us see the food we grew up with as ‘normal’ but when we stop to ponder the practices behind many familiar foods, they start to look a little bit weird,” comments Toni Vernelli, international head of policy and communications at Veganuary, who adds that the 2025 campaign is ‘asking everyone to face the startling reality of how our food choices impact animals and the planet and consider whether trying vegan for January might just be a little less weird’. 

By Rosie Greenaway, editor