Minneapolis Mayor Hosts Inaugural Plant-Based Series on Climate-Friendly Foods

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Michelle Courtright, owner of local plant-based eatery Fig + Farro, recently hosted the first in a series of monthly climate change events that bring together experts, policy stakeholders, and community members to discuss how food choices affect the environment. The Climate Series Salon and Supper Club program brings action to Mayor Frey’s Plant-Based Proclamation, a document he issued in July urging citizens to consider eating climate-friendly foods such as plants. The inaugural event at Fig + Farro included a signature “Earth’s Getting Hotter” cocktail and an exclusive pre-fixe plant-based meal. “As a mission-based restaurant, our priorities are to serve delicious plant-based food as well as educate others on the significantly lower carbon footprint that vegetables have over meat,” Courtright said. “Most people don’t know that livestock production creates more greenhouse gases than all cars, trains, planes, and buses combined.” The series will continue on the first Monday of each month—coinciding with Meatless Monday—and will be hosted by other environmental influencers who will strategize ways in which Minneapolis and the rest of the state can become leaders in the climate-change movement.