Visionary School System Adopts Meatless Mondays

Friday, October 23, 2009

Baltimore City schools are going meatless on Mondays.  The school system has around 80,000 students. As one would expect, the American Meat Institute (AMI) has criticised the Baltimore City Schools adoption of the 'Meatless Monday' campaign, a program done in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

I have come across so many people who assume that one needs to eat meat to get protein in their diet.  This FUD (Fear - Uncertainty - Doubt) is spread by organizations that benefit from having everyone eat meat everyday and lapped up by people who have not been exposed to balanced literature on health and food.  The food pyramid advanced by the government health organization has clearly dispelled the protein myth that meat is the only source of protein and incorporated a customizable plan for vegetarians via the MyPyramid.

AMI and other pro-meat organizations need to promote a balanced view and leave it to the people to make a choice. It is not like the`Baltimore school system went totally vegetarian.  They still offer meat to the meat eaters four out of the five school days.  I hope the Baltimore school system weathers any criticism thrown at them for offering the children a healthy alternative to meat. Kudos to them for taking this decision.