San Francisco is First U.S. City to Declare Mondays as Veg Day

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San Francisco is First U.S. City to Declare Mondays as " Veg Day "

SF Veg Society | Dixie Mahy | 04/07/10

 

 

It was a good milestone for vegetarian activist Dixie Mahy, President of the San

Francisco Vegetarian Society, to see her efforts come to fruition in a Board

Resolution on Tuesday, April 6, 2010.

 

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a Resolution

declaring Mondays as " Vegetarian Day " to urge all San Francisco restaurants,

grocery stores, and schools to offer a variety of plant based options to improve

the health of San Francisco residents.

 

Mahy hopes that other cities will be encouraged to use the Resolution as a

template to get their cities to adopt a similar Resolution.

 

Dixie Mahy and Hope Bohanec, Campaigns Director from In Defense of Animals

(IDA), worked on the Resolution with Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, a vegetarian of

35 years. They are now working on strategy to inform the various restaurants,

grocery stores, and schools on how to implement Veg Day. The San Francisco

Vegetarian Society will be offering recipes, menu suggestions, and even some

special classes on vegan cooking. At this time SFVS has a Discount Program that

includes various mixed Restaurants that offer a variety of vegan options. With

this Resolution, Mahy now hopes to expand the Program with a special list

recognizing various participants with as an extra advertising incentive.

 

Following is the full text of the Resolution.

 

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Resolution declaring Mondays as " Vegetarian Day " to urge all restaurants,

grocery stores, and schools to offer a variety of plant based options to improve

the health of San Francisco residents.

 

WHEREAS, The Plant based diet is truly a Green Diet that reduces the serious

ecological problems involved in livestock production; and

 

WHEREAS, The 2009 report from World Bank environmental advisers, Goodland and

Anhang, called " Livestock and Climate Change " , reveals that farmed animals and

their byproducts are responsible for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon

dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

Goodland and Anhang concluded that replacing animal products with soy-based and

other alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change; and

 

WHEREAS, The findings from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization

report prompted Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to recommend that individuals reduce

their personal carbon impact by decreasing their meat consumption; and

 

WHEREAS, Plant-based diets are good preventive medicine and could help reduce

medical costs to individuals and the health care system; and

 

WHEREAS, In July 2009, Ghent, Belgium recognized the relationship between diet

and climate change by establishing a VegDay each week of the year; and

 

WHEREAS, In April 2009, the City of Takoma Park, Maryland, adopted a Mayoral

Proclamation designating April 24-30 " Takoma Park Veg Week, " to encourage

citizens to choose vegetarian foods as a way to protect the planet, their

health, and animals; and

 

WHEREAS, In February 2009, as part of the Green Cincinnati Plan, the City's Food

Task Force recommended that residents replace some of the meat in their diet

with fresh fruits and vegetables; 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 " ; now, therefore, be it

 

RESOLVED, That the Board of Supervisors designates Mondays as " Veg Day " to

encourage restaurants, grocery stores, and schools to offer a greater variety of

plant based options to improve the health of San Francisco residents and

visitors, and to increase the awareness of the impact a GREEN DIET would be on

our planet.

 

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(for the official copy of the resolution as submitted, see

http://www.sfbos.org/ftp/uploadedfiles/bdsupvrs/bosagendas/materials/bag040610_1\

00413.pdf)

 

See also:

http://www.sfvs.org/ (San Francisco Vegetarian Society)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Defense_of_Animals

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock_and_climate_change

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajendra_K._Pachauri

 

-- Mike