Doctors Urge Schools To Go Vegetarian
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is urging the nation’s schools to drop beef from their lunch programs because of the threat posed by mad cow disease.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the country’s 50 biggest school districts, the organization’s Nutrition Projects Coordinator Jennifer Keller, prompted school food service directors to replace beef and other meats with vegetarian foods.
“The alarming reality is that because of lax regulations, poor enforcement, and very limited testing, the extent to which mad cow disease has entered the human food supply is unknown,” says Keller.
An expert panel appointed by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Friday that other infected animals probably have been imported from Canada and possibly also from Europe. “These animals have not been detected and therefore infective material has likely been rendered, fed to cattle, and amplified within the cattle population, so that cattle in the U.S. have also been indigenously infected,” they said.
What is known, says Keller, is that many U.S. livestock rendering and feeding practices are similar to those in place in Great Britain just before the outbreak of the mad cow epidemic there in the late 1980s.
Since then, more than 140 British people have died from the human form of this infection, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob (vCJD) disease, as a result of eating contaminated beef.
The physicians recommend that school lunch programs replace beef with soy, textured vegetable protein, and beans in menu items to assure that children in our schools have safe, healthy and tasty menu choices.
“Veggie burgers, soy hot dogs, and other meatless menu choices are low in fat, high in fiber, aid children in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, and are free of prions, the infectious agent in mad cow disease and vCJD,” says Keller.
“A healthy vegetarian menu is a win-win situation for kids and adults,” she says.
Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, especially good nutrition. PCRM also conducts clinical research studies, opposes unethical human experimentation, and promotes alternatives to animal research.
Provided by theEnvironmental News Service.