When did our children become disposable?
This loaded question was posed around the conference table in Anthony Geraci's sunny office at the Baltimore School District headquarters as a group of us talked about programs designed to help our kids make healthier choices in their lives, beginning with the food they eat.
As Food Service Director, Tony has worked closely with the district's dietician to make systemic changes that have resulted in the kids in Baltimore schools trying new foods and slowly becoming more health conscious. But it has not been without controversy and therein was the question we posed.
When school began in September, the kids of Baltimore became the first in the country to adopt 'Meatless Mondays, an international program that asks people to cut meat from their diet one day a week. Their goal is simple: reducing meat consumption by a mere 15% can improve human and planetary health. Endorsed by esteemed medical institutions like the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, this seems like a no-brainer, right? Impressed with the credentials and the program, Baltimore decided to take part and see what would happen. I'm not sure anyone was ready for the firestorm of attacks being launched at them by the meat industry.
Leading the charge is, of course, every vegetarian's favorite villain, J. Patrick Boyle, CEO of The American Meat Institute, whose mission in their own words includes: being the most effective, credible and widely recognized voice of the meat and poultry industry, and valuing livestock and poultry as nutritious food sources. The mission statement also says that the 'AMI values honesty.' Ah, irony.
The attacks launched against Meatless Mondays in Baltimore schools are anything but honest. If they told the truth, they would say that by eliminating meat for one meal a week in our kids' diets, we are affecting their bottom line. They have little regard for our children's health. If they did, would growth hormones, steroids, antibiotics and other toxins are so heavily used in the foods they peddle to our kids and call valuable sources of nutrients? If they told the truth, they would acknowledge the connections between childhood obesity, diabetes and heart disease and the excessive consumption of meat products. If they told the truth, they would admit that reducing meat intake by even the smallest amount results in dramatic improvements in human and planetary health.
While Meatless Mondays has received an endorsement from PETA, the infamous animal rights group, it has little to do with the program itself, except to applaud its efforts. The idea of not eating meat on Monday originated back in World War I as an effort to conserve resources. But that's not good enough for Mr. Boyle. In his letter to Andres Alonso (CEO of the Baltimore school district), Mr. Boyle stated that this campaign is a way for animal activists to brainwash young children. Yes, Mr. Boyle, we can't have our kids going all healthy and compassionate on us and valuing life!
His letter continues: "I was disturbed to read about your school system's decision to bow to an animal rights organization in holding "Meat Free Mondays." This initiative is sponsored by the Grace Spira Project at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The name Spira refers to Henry Spira, who is widely regarded as of the most extreme animal rights activists in the 20th century." Puh-leeze!
In a show of admirable will, the school district has not buckled under the pressure of the meat industry. And it has been fierce! Who would have thought that meatless lasagna, cheese sandwiches and broccoli could wreak such havoc? Mr. Boyle has gone as far as stating that Meatless Mondays seeks 'an end to the United States' efficient and advanced food production system that delivers to Americans the safest, most abundant and affordable food supply in the world.'
Even the school dietician's public assurances that the ultimate goal of this program in schools is to help children have a better relationship with vegetables and to start the discussion about the impact of food choices on health, communities and the planet have fallen on deaf ears in the meat industry.
Meatless Mondays is a positive program designed to educate our children to be healthier for life and is being attacked from all sides. Troy Hadrick, a rancher, wrote on the Advocates for Agriculture website that Meatless Mondays are obviously designed to push children toward vegetarian lifestyles by telling them that 'they can't have meat on Monday because meat isn't healthy for you.' He goes on to advocate parents doing whatever it takes to keep this information from their children. Yikes!
As ranchers and lobbyists rail about one school district's plan to make our children healthier by teaching them to have a better relationship with veggies, Fairbanks Farms in North Carolina has recalled more than 500,000 pounds of meat contaminated with E. coli, resulting in 2 people dead and more fallen ill.
What was it that Patrick Boyle said about the safest food supply?
Here's what's interesting. We vegans and vegetarians are more often than not dismissed as petty, unimportant nuisances to meat producing conglomerates. They paint us as Birkenstock-wearing, ungroomed, tree-hugging puppy lovers who mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.
So why is that all these people, from the American Meat Institute to cattle ranchers to lobbyists are so up in arms with one school district taking meat off the menu for one meal a week? Trust me when I tell you it has nothing to do with your children's health and welfare. Could it be that they fear a change in thinking that's in the air? Could it be that they sense that Americans have had enough? Enough of their cheap, subsidized, poor quality meat, loaded with antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids...enough of their swill that is stealing the health of their children and families? Could it be that they are shaking in their cowboy boots at the idea that the children of the future might make better choices than what they have been marketed to want?
The American Meat Institute and their ilk would have us eat more meat, even in the face of the overwhelming evidence that the food they produce and the way they produce it is directly linked to many of the lifestyle diseases that threaten to extinguish the light on the health of our children...obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
This generation of children could be the first that lives shorter, sicker lives than their parents. So many of these problems could be avoided if children ate more whole grains and vegetables and less meat.
Instead of attacking visionaries like those in the Baltimore school district who want nothing but the best for our children, they should be applauding the efforts to create a strong and healthy future for this country.
It's time to stop thinking only of our bottom lines, our profit centers and the health of our checkbooks and make the health of our society a priority. We won't find long term vitality in 99-cent burgers, no matter what Patrick Boyle says. We won't find it in grilled chicken in a bucket either. These organizations have only the health of their business in mind, not the health of our children. For them, our kids are a disposable demographic that can be replaced by another generation.
Who will be next on their hit list, Catholics who still choose not to eat meat on Fridays?
Follow Christina Pirello on Twitter: www.twitter.com/christinacooks
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Milk in schools is full of hormones.
Meat kills people. 2 people recently died because of contaminated meat.
The two people that died, didn't die because of the meat they ate. It was because of human error in producing the product. If meat is properly handled and cooked, you will not get sick from eating it.
The article never said anything about the quality of the dead animals you and your children eat. What it is saying is that you want US school children to eat dead animals on Mondays.
Now, some vegetarians aren't about the "Meat is M.ur.der!" thing. Some go vegetarian for the environment. The earth and people get too much meat and taking it off the menu at our schools on Mondays isn't going to hurt anyone but your industry. And Big Ag is not someone you want to meet in a dark ally. So, don't worry. They are working on your problem, right now.
Check out "Eating Animals" on Amazon.com and know your industry's heyday may be over (no matter what they tell you in their flyers and at their conferences). Try converting your ranch into an organic one so it's in balance with earth if you have ranching in your blood. If not, maybe your lobbyists can save you once the republicans get back into power.
-Sarge
Not surprisingly, these low-cost foods are also healthy...dovetailing with the concern over rising obesity rates in children.
I guess the only reason the meat producers attacked is because a formal name was given to the program. If the Monday meatless options had simply appeared without fanfare, I doubt any kids would complain about the lack of a meat dish.
Fatness doesn't come from meat, it comes from sugar and non-complex carbohydrates.
One thing that may have helped in our house is that we turned off the television - completely - when the oldest was 9 years old. We did not want to turn their souls over to corporate America. They never complained - it was just the way life was in our house - and they have since thanked us for it.
But I do believe the constant onslaught of commercials telling us what to think, eat, wear, own, do, not do, etc., is simply brainwashing. if we called it what it was, perhaps more people would turn off their own television sets.
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I watched less T.V. as i got older and 8 years ago I cancelled Cable. It was the best decision.
I have sinced saved over $5,000 and my mind is clear and free.
I have since read many books and have done more activities.
T.V. is evil. It's a tool to brainwash people into being dumb consumers for Corporate America.
It's not a coincidence that I have purchased far less goods since not watching any more T.V.
Who cares? We have what's important - and it's not a cruise, a car we can't afford, or a big screen television.
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No the meat doesn't cause the diabetes. That would be the HFCS.
The soda pop and meat and white flour all add up to a patter of bad eating.
And I call bs on you knowing... 'lots of very obese children and adults are are vegans and vegetarians who do not eat junk food either
Lots? Very obese?
Prolly not...
Read the following from the US National Institutes of Health web site:
"A vegetarian diet focuses on plants for food. These include fruits, vegetables, dried beans and peas, grains, seeds and nuts. There is no single type of vegetarian diet. Instead, vegetarian eating patterns usually fall into the following groups:
- The vegan diet, which excludes all meat and animal products
- The lacto vegetarian diet, which includes plant foods plus dairy products
- The lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, which includes both dairy products and eggs.
People who follow vegetarian diets can get all the nutrients they need. " You can see it at:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/vegetariandiet.html
Try next time to do some checking first to get ACCURATE INFORMATION ! !
BTW I am not against meat, but I am against misstating the truth ! .
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the lacto, ovo, fish vegetarians
and the lacto, ovo, fish, beef, chicken, pork vegetarians
and the B12 vitamin enriched food vegetarians
and the sodium laced, faux meat vegetarians
and the insect, reptile, amphibian vegetarians
and the Hindu pork, chicken, anything but beef vegetarians
and the ever popular: oriental canine, feline vegetarians
Sorry to poke fun, but either you are vegetarian or not. It is obvious from your comments that many vegetarians do not feel they are not getting enough protein and good fats and B12 from a purely plant based diet. Science and cultures the world over disagree with you. Even the Dali Lama was told to start eating meat for health reasons.
Eat what you wish, it is your body. But don't yell at others for their choices. It is more important to eat what is available locally and what does not come from a factory. In other words in your quest for an environmentally healthy diet don't eat mangos if you live in Minnesota.
Grassfed meat is an essential source of nutrients that are impossible to obtain from plant foods.
Parents, if you are so concerned about what your kids are eating at school, make their lunches and better yet as they get older, teach them how to make their own lunch. Why do people always think government has to solve their problems.
I want my tax money to be used to put healthy food in schools.
Yes, I want the government to regulate school lunches. It's my tax money and the children deserve good healthy food.
Those vending machines with all that candy and sugar laced sodas need to go too.
please explain how you get
B12
carnitine
zinc
vitamin A
vitamin K2
EPA/DHA
from plants
It's criminal what our schools here feed our children. The whole food system is corrupted with GMO and hormone contaminated food.
It's no wonder that brad pitta and angelina jolie are raising their children in France. The food is better there.
But egg whites and low-fat dairy are excellent protein sources, at least as good as meat.
Food service distributors sell frozen egg beaters patties. Add reduced-fat cheese and whole wheat rounds, and there's an ideal school lunch entree: healthy, economical, and kid-friendly.