The Humane Society of the United States Praises Baltimore Public Schools' New Meatless Mondays Program

The Humane Society of the United States applauded the Baltimore City public school system for launching a Meatless Mondays initiative this week. The program will offer meat-free options for its students each Monday, with the goal of a more balanced, healthier, and more humane school lunch program.

"Reducing meat consumption and integrating healthy meat-free foods into our diets is a critically-important tool in the fight against obesity, heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes and other preventable yet serious diseases," stated Michael Greger, MD, director of public health and animal agriculture at The HSUS. "The Baltimore public school system's leadership in joining the Meatless Mondays effort provides a model for other schools interested in promoting better health in both children and adults."

Baltimore is the first U.S. school system to join the Meatless Mondays program, which enables people to make food choices that improve health, protect the environment and prevent animal cruelty.

During both World Wars, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration used the term "Meatless Monday" to encourage Americans to cut meat consumption to support the war effort. Now the concept is being used to fight another war against obesity and other preventable chronic diseases that cause 70 percent of all U.S. deaths and cost the country more than a trillion dollars a year.

The Meatless Mondays program also helps to combat inhumane practices on industrial factory farms, by reducing consumption of factory-farmed products one day each week.

Facts:

• Meat-free foods are an important antidote to factory farms, which raise and kill more than 9 billion farm animals in the United States each year. These massive operations pollute our environment, and raising animals for food contributes to global warming at least as much as the transport sector, according to the United Nations.
• Spearheaded by the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and supported by 28 other schools of public health, the Meatless Mondays program's goal is to help reduce meat consumption to curb the risk of heart disease, help Americans maintain a healthy weight and improve the overall quality of our diets.
• A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released last week noted that more than 9 out of 10 teens were failing to meet even the minimum recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables.
• According to the American Dietetic Association, "appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases."
• The HSUS works to refine the methods of animal production to be more humane and sustainable, reduce consumption of factory-farmed products, and replace meat products with meat-free options when possible.

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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization — backed by 11 million Americans, or one of every 28. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty — On the web at humanesociety.org.