The discount retailer Lidl has announced that it will offer fewer meat products and more plant-based foods in its German stores. The Lidl chief buyer describes this step as “there is no alternative” and also provides a clear justification: There is no planet B. The resources of this earth are finite and must be enough for ten billion people.

Because the constantly increasing meat consumption worldwide has fatal consequences for our climate. With a share of around 15 percent, livestock farming as a whole makes a significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. Their share is almost as large as that of global traffic.

The largest discounter in the world is doing exactly what we demand of powerful companies: take responsibility.

We will closely monitor the concrete implementation of this announcement at Lidl. At the same time, we call on all other large supermarket chains to follow Lidl's example.

We now call on Tesco, Sainsbury's, Co-op, Iceland, Aldi, M&S, Asda, Morrisons, and Waitrose to ensure a sustainable range of food with fewer animal and more plant-based products.