No Meat on Mondays in Los Angeles

CNS News ^ | November 12, 2012 | Susan Jones

[NYer]

(CNSNews.com) - The Los Angeles City Council is urging all residents to observe "meatless Mondays" from now on.

A resolution adopted on Oct. 24 reads: "Be it resolved, that the Council of the City of Los Angeles hereby declares all Mondays as 'Meatless Mondays' in support of comprehensive sustainability efforts as well as to further encourage residents to eat a more varied plant-based diet to protect their health and protect animals."

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who introduced the resolution, also wants to ban new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles.

"While this is a symbolic gesture, it is asking people to think about the food choices they make. Eating less meat can reverse some of our nation's most common illnesses," press reports quoted Perry as saying.

The resolution makes 15 points in support of meatless Mondays, including U.N. recognition that "livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems."

And if that's not enought, the resolution also mentions the growing obesity epidemic, the importance of reducing "our carbon footprint," health disparities in low-income communities, and animal cruelty.

The resolution plugs a vegetarian diet, noting that a nonprofit group in Los Angeles called Compassion Over Killing "encourages people to choose vegetarian foods as a way to help build a kinder, cleaner, and healthier world, and works with businesses throughout Los Angeles County to ensure vegetarian meals are readily available to consumers."

Los Angeles now becomes the largest city to endorse "meatless Mondays." The Washington, D.C., City Council also has designated "Meat Free Mondays," San Francisco has designated every Monday as "Veg Day," and a number of colleges and public schools also have adopted meatless Monday policies.

The text of the resolution endorsing "Meatless Mondays" in Los Angeles is printed below.

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, in 2007, the City of Los Angeles adopted GREEN LA: a progressive action plan
to lead the nation in fighting global warming, which includes the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting clean technology, reducing air pollution, conserving water, and more;

WHEREAS, the United Nations recognizes that "Livestock are one of the most significant
contributors to today's most serious environmental problems"; and

WHEREAS, recent studies and reports have demonstrated that we can lower our carbon
footprint simply by reducing the amount of animal-based foods we eat; and

WHEREAS, more than half of the adult population is overweight or obese in Los Angeles
County. Statistics show that low-income areas in Los Angeles are at higher risk for preventable diseases linked to obesity, including, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes and even cancer; and

WHEREAS, poorer communities around Los Angeles have less access to healthy foods; and

WHEREAS, health disparities exist in various groups, with African-Americans and Hispanics
at a higher risk of diseases linked to poor nutrition habits; and

WHEREAS, the American Dietetic Association recognizes that reduced meat consumption
decreases the risk of various health problems, stating, "Scientific data suggests positive relationships between a vegetarian diet and reduced risk for several chronic degenerative diseases and conditions, including obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and some types of cancer"; and

WHEREAS, a growing number of people are reducing their meat consumption to help prevent animal cruelty; and

WHEREAS, in 2008, Californians overwhelmingly supported Proposition 2, the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, which banned some of the cruelest forms offarmed animal confinement; and

WHEREAS, Compassion Over Killing, a nonprofit organization with an office in Los Angeles,
encourages people to choose vegetarian foods as a way to help build a kinder, cleaner, and healthier world, and works with businesses throughout Los Angeles County to ensure vegetarian meals are readily available to consumers; and

WHEREAS, several colleges and universities in California and nationwide have added
Meatless Monday menus in their cafeterias including the University of California-Davis and the University of California-San Diego; and

WHEREAS, the Baltimore City Public School System in Maryland, became the first school
district in the U.S. to adopt a 100% Meatless Monday policy in 2009, the Oakland Unified School District adopted this policy in 2010, along with other school districts in Arlington, VA, Oneida, NY, and Longmont, CO; and

WHEREAS, the Council of the District of Columbia has designated Mondays as "Meat Free
Mondays" highlight the benefits of diets high in fruits and vegetables; and

WHEREAS, the City of San Francisco has designated every Monday as "Veg Day" to
encourage restaurants, grocery stores, and schools to offer a greater variety of healthier and more sustainable plant-based options; and

WHEREAS, a growing number of cities, including Takoma Park, MD, Annapolis, MD, and
Marin County, CA, have passed resolutions encouraging residents to explore vegetarian eating to help protect their health, the environment, and animals and the Green Cincinnati Plan recommends going meatless one day a week; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Los Angeles hereby
declares all Mondays as "Meatless Mondays" in support of comprehensive sustainability efforts as well as to further encourage residents to eat a more varied plant-based diet to protect their health and protect animals.

RESENTED BY
JAN C. PERRY
Councilwoman, 9th District
SECONDED BY:

CO-PRESENTED BY ED P .REYES
Councilman, 1st District
OCT 24 2012

ADOPTED
OCT 24 2012
LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL

[Conservative4Ever]

I’m in only if it is proceeded by sirloin Sunday. :-)

[chuckee]

“Councilwoman Jan Perry, who introduced the resolution, also wants to ban new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles.”

How is this not discriminatory and violative of the 14th amendment? People of color cannot have a big MAC while white folk can fill up on all the lard they want. Sounds like the makings of a new career for Al Sharpton-lobbyist for KFC.

[longfellow]

chic fila anyone?

[Gay State Conservative]

I've always loved vegetables...even as a kid.But somehow a nice serving of vegetables seems...incomplete...without a nice juicy piece of sirloin.I'm an omnivore.Always have been,always will be.

[dfwgator]

Vegetables are what food eats.

[riri]

That's gonna be nothing. We had a freeper on here at one time from Norway, he said they were lucky to eat meat twice a year because it was so expensive.

Then wait until we get our Calorie Ration Cards. (see my tagline)

[righttackle44]

¿Puedo tener tres burritos de carne, por favor??

[ClearBlueSky]

Clever PC...its always for OUR GOOD that we must be made to sacrifice. This is about killing the fast food industry not `saving animals`. Guess the cattle ranchers should just sell cows as pets? No...PETA says pets are evil. I know....save the animals-go primitive all the way- eat liberal politicians!!! Cannibalism-mankinds perfect diet! It saves the earth and the animals and eliminates evil mankind! I`ll have a Barbara Boxer burger please!

[heartwood]

Darwin forbid it should be Friday.

[Gay State Conservative]

Vegetables are what food eats.

Broccoli,cauliflower,green beans,spinach,corn,carrots,beets...love 'em all.Always have.I hate Brussels Sprouts,lima beans,peas and squash...and that's it.To me a world without the veggies I like would be one not worth inhabiting.Same goes for a world without beef,chicken,lamb,pork...and the occasional chocolate covered grasshopper ;-)

[ArrogantBustard]

Darwin forbid it should be Friday.

LOL!

I'm glad these freaks didn't try to usurp my traditional Catholic "Friday abstinence". So, when I visit LaLaLand, I can flout the moonbattery without disrupting the practice of my faith.

[Smokin' Joe]

WHEREAS, the United Nations recognizes that "Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems"; and...

The WTF? Who made that bunch of Marxist tinpot pinheads the arbiter of what causes environmental problems? It ain't my steak, Lady. Keep your city, keep your rules there, and don't try to export that crap here.

As for 'fast food' most of them don't use any meat to speak of, anyway.

[socal_parrot]

Arrogant, smug, annoying vegetarian here. I am that way by choice, not decree. It works for me, not everyone. I would never tell someone not to eat meat.

All that being said, it starts with non binding resolutions and ends with strict laws and regulations.

[wisenheimers_kid]

Was just reading about meatless Mondays and wheatless Wednesdays campaign in WWI to conserve food. Herbert Hoover led this effort.

[cartan]

As many modern left-wing ideas, this one, too came from Adolf Hitler:

Starting October 1st, 1933, the Nazis introduced the Eintopfsonntag—from October to March, one Sunday a month, every household was supposed to eat only some simple stew dish for dinner (Eintopf). Ideally, like the Führer himself, of course, vegetarian. The difference in price, determined by the government to be 50 pfennigs, was then collected by Nazi brownshirts who went from house to house, looking into people’s pots to make sure they contained acceptable dinner. The money was then donated to some Nazi charity organization. It was not acceptable to just pay the 50 pfennigs; the entire German people were supposed to make a conscious sacrifice, to help their comrades in need, thus giving everybody a warm, fuzzy feeling of socialism!

[Vaduz]

Every day in Los Angeles is full of vegetables and nuts.

[The_Reader_David]

Comment on this news from the orthodox blog Ad Orientem:

LA Adds Another Meatless Day

So the liberal wienies in LA have now decreed that Monday's shall be meatless. This of course just further demonstrates the complete lack of sensitivity that liberals have. If they had given it even a few moments of thought they would have realized that a solid majority of their citizens are Hispanic, who are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. Observant Catholics already abstain from meat on Fridays. And of course those of us on the other side of the Bosporus don't eat meat on Wednesdays and Fridays. Minimal reflection might have suggested that Friday would be a good day if they must use the government to try and regulate our diet.

But really the uptake of all of this is that the citizens of Los Angeles pay each of the 15 members of their city council $178,789 per year to tell them they should not eat meat on Mondays.

Our country has gone barking mad.