Agricultural News
San Diego School District's Adoption of 'Meatless Mondays' Disappoints Animal Agriculture Alliance
Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:24:45 CDT
The following editorial was provided by the Animal Agriculture Alliance:
Last night the San Diego, CA, school board voted 4-1 to adopt a proposal which would force schools to abstain from serving meat to hungry students on Mondays. The proposal, authored by board President John Lee Evans and Vice President Kevin Beiser, applies to elementary and K-8 schools but not middle and high schools.
"We are disappointed with how the school board chose to vote on such an important issue which affects the health and wellbeing of children in San Diego's schools," said Animal Agriculture Alliance President and CEO Kay Johnson Smith. "The intentions of board members in support of this measure are gravely misguided as protein is often what is most lacking in school age children's diets especially those who may only get real meals when at school."
As was reported in one article following the board's vote, over 65% of children in the San Diego School District qualify for the subsidized lunch program based on their family's income.
"I wish that the school board would have taken more time to consider this proposal, as the Meatless Mondays campaign is an extreme measure driven by animal rights organizations who hope to end the consumption of meat, milk and eggs in this country." said Johnson Smith.
Meatless Mondays is a carefully orchestrated campaign that seeks to eliminate meat from Americans' meals seven days a week beginning with Mondays. Organized through the Center for a Livable Future at John Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, the campaign, which is funded in large part by a wealthy, long-time animal rights activist, pushes an extreme animal rights and environmental agenda by promoting false claims about animal agriculture.
The Center for a Livable Future has been associated with extremist anti-animal agriculture groups including, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Farm Sanctuary and Compassion Over Killing, and is responsible for the anti-modern farming efforts by the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment.
Early on June 4, 2013, Johnson Smith wrote to members of the school board urging them to "vote no" on the proposal, and provided resources fully explaining the myths behind this campaign. The full text of Johnson Smith's letter to school board members is available here.
"The meat industry supports consumer choice; but as the majority of San Diego's schools already provide students with an abundance of vegetarian options, I see no reason why the school board would find it necessary to validate such an extreme proposal and deprive students of protein-packed food choices at lunchtime."
To learn more about the myths and facts of the Meatless Mondays movement and for a comprehensive resource guide, visit the Animal Agriculture Alliance website.
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