Dr. Michael Wayne

Obesity, Meat Free Monday, and the Empire Strikes Back

Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono get a little help from their friends in announcing the launch of Meat Free Mondays
Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono get a little help from their friends in announcing the launch of Meat Free Monday

Back in September I posted an article about Meat Free Monday, the campaign that Paul McCartney is helping to spearhead, which encourages people to go meat free one day a week.

The theory behind Meat Free Monday is that eating less meat is good for the environment and that even one less day of meat eating a week can help slow climate change.

It’s also well-known that eating too much meat can be harmful to your health, and so Meat Free Monday can definitely be a boost to the health of anyone who partakes.

And it can also be something that can lower obesity rates.

With that in mind, the city of Baltimore public school system became the first district in the U.S. to adopt Meat Free Monday. On October 5, 2009 the school cafeteria workers began prepping their first vegetarian fare.

This is really such a wise thing for the school district to do, especially in the face of the rising tide of childhood obesity, and obesity in general, in the U.S.

But the Empire was immediately ready to strike back at the news.

A spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute, Janet Riley, recently went on CNN and warned that students aren’t getting enough protein.

And the Animal Agriculture Alliance urged people “shocked” by the once-weekly absence of meat on school menus to write schools chief Andrés Alonso “to ensure this effort does not spread.”

Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute

“I am not suggesting that every child be forced to eat meat every day,” Janet Riley of the American Meat Institute said on CNN’s Lou Dobbs Tonight. “What I am suggesting is that children and parents should have the ability to choose what they want to eat.”

Riley also voiced concerns that children will not get enough protein. Will someone please tell her that there are lots of other sources of protein besides meat?

And, get this, Riley also didn’t like the idea of  the indoctrination that will occur: she’s concerned that it’s not the place for a school to tell children how to eat.

Riley said that by taking meat completely off of the menu one day a week, the school district was denying students the freedom of choice.  “I am not suggesting that every child be forced to eat meat every day,” said Riley.  “What I am suggesting is that children and parents should have the ability to choose what they want to eat.”

During the segment on CNN, host Lou Dobbs commented, “That’s a real political storm in the making, isn’t it?”

You can watch the CNN segment in the video at the top of this page.

Now, you may consider it a coincidence, but it wasn’t much longer after this segment aired that Dobbs announced his resignation from his show, effective immediately.

To me, it’s no coincidence. It’s obvious Lou Dobbs is quitting in order to get to the bottom of this conspiracy and find out who’s behind this treacherous plot that’s forcing our kids to not eat meat.

I mean, God forbid, if these kids actually go a day without meat, then they may actually lower the obesity rates amongst children and in the U.S. in general. And we wouldn’t want to upset the apple cart, would we?

I mean, do we really want to invoke the wrath of the Empire, and take a risk of the Empire Striking Back?

And here’s a repeat of the video from the article in September in which Paul McCartney announces the Meat Free Monday campaign: