Have a look at this letter I sent asking the President to consider Meat-Free Mondays!
President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, D.C.
July 30, 2009
Dear Mr. President,
Sir Paul McCartney is in town this weekend and has launched an
initiative called "Meat-Free Mondays" to help stave off climate change,
lessen the suffering of animals, and promote a diet healthier than the
artery-clogging, obesity-inducing one that is a major cause of the
soaring health-care costs and worker absenteeism in this country.
As you no doubt know, on October 5, 1947, in the first televised
White House address, President Truman asked Americans to refrain from
eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help stockpile
grain for starving people in Europe. Today, the number of starving
people in the world is on a par with the number of obese people in the
U.S., and a restriction on meat and dairy-product intake could help tip
those scales for the better.
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the city of Ghent in Belgium,
parts of Israel, and, this fall, many schools in the U.K. are among
those embracing the concept of "Meat-Free Monday." It's one-seventh of
where we should be, but it's a great start. If you institute this
program in the White House, it will be a giant step forward in
transforming it to a green house, and it will set a wonderful example
for people nationwide?or worldwide? Who look to you for leadership when
it comes to a kinder, environmentally friendlier, and more
health-conscious approach to life.
Respectfully yours,
Ingrid E. Newkirk
President, PETA