Vegetarian Star

The request for Obama to stop eating meat in public apparently hasn’t been put on any recent Congress agenda, but activists are hoping the President will consider a ban on factory farmed meat.

Wendy Matthews of Farm Sanctuary has started a petition that urges Obama to promote nutrition education programs that emphasize grains, fruits and vegetables; reduce the use of antibiotics in livestock animals; improve waste disposal methods on farms and eliminating practices used where animals are intensely confined, such as debeaking and tail-docking.

“Factory farming is destroying our environment, our communities, animal welfare, and even our health – at an alarming rate,” the petition reads. “It is critical that we bring an end to factory farming, to restore a more viable food system and preserve our world.”

“Factory farms have driven small farms out of business and represent the majority of our food system today. The industry has cleared vast areas of forest and rainforest, producing 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture alone, wasting food and water resources, and polluting our air and water. On factory farms, animals are also induced to grow bigger, to grow faster, and to produce more than their systems can support, while they are subjected to confinement and painful mutilations. Factory farming practices spread diseases, such as mad cow, swine flu, and various food poisonings, including e-coli and salmonella. Extensive antibiotic use by factory farms creates drug resistant bacteria, which puts human health at risk.”

Read the remaining letter and sign for yourself at Change.org.

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