Cities flip food norms

Nationally and globally, political leaders are waking up to the role animal agriculture and food plays in the climate and health crises. Now, New York City is trailblazing a healthier future by completely flipping the script on America’s harmful food norms—and serving plants by default.

In NYC, the need for better food norms is urgent—heart disease is the city’s number one killer. That’s why NYC officials are starting this change in the heart of their communities: the hospitals that help citizens get well. With help from our Greener by Default initiative, all 11 city hospitals are now serving plants-by-default lunches—and dinner is up next.

What this means is that patients automatically receive plant-based meals, but can still opt in to meat or dairy if they choose. This simple but powerful menu flip has led to a dramatic change—now more than half of eligible patients are choosing plant-based meals, even when meat and dairy are available! These numbers are staggering considering that only 1 percent of patients identify as vegetarian or vegan.

And while health is the primary concern for NYC’s hospitals, this change also benefits animals and the environment. In just 6 months, the hospitals have already served over 150,000 plant-based meals through their new menu—and over the course of a year, as the initiative expands to dinners, it will impact up to 800,000 meals. 

NYC’s new plants-by-default program boldly builds on an accelerating global movement. Many cities have taken steps to model sustainable eating: cities like Oakland and Cleveland have committed to Meatless Mondays, and San Diego and Washington, DC, have set meat reduction targets as part of their climate policies. In 2019, Amsterdam became the first global city to serve plant-based meals by default, and in 2021, the Denver Mayor’s Sustainability Advisory Council followed suit.

Now by actually changing their defaults across an entire public institution, NYC has gone further than any other U.S. city toward establishing plant-based eating as the new paradigm. 

While NYC is beckoning in an exciting future, it’s also returning to its peoples’ roots: plant-based eating has been an integral part of food cultures and religions throughout history. In culturally diverse NYC, centering inclusive food choices on the menu is even more important. People of color are most likely to be lactose-intolerant and to suffer from diabetes and heart disease. Access to healthy plant-based foods through public institutions like hospitals and schools isn’t just a health issue; it’s a social justice issue.