Brighter Green Signs on to Letters to Public Officials

Brighter Green has signed on to several recent letters to public officials and institutions in support of plant-based diets, public health, and welfare and rights for wild and domesticated animals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and revisions underway to U.S. dietary guidelines.

The first letter, created by the Union of Concerned Scientists, urges the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Health & Human Services to follow the lead of countries like Brazil, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden and incorporate environmental sustainability research into the 2020 revision of national Dietary Guidelines. Other signatories include the American Public Health Association, the National Resources Defense Council, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest. During the last revision, in 2015, the expert committee called for sustainability to be a facet of the guidelines, reflecting the unassailable connection between public health and the environment. In that context, the committee called for Americans to eat less meat and more vegetables, legumes, fruits, and whole grains. Unfortunately, this sound recommendation wasn’t adopted.

The second letter, created by UK-based animal protection organization Born Free, calls for an end to eating and breeding wildlife in order to protect wild animals and to prevent future zoonotic outbreaks like the new coronavirus (COVID-19) now spreading around the world. This letter had over 200 signatories, including Brighter Green and our colleague organization in China, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Fund (CBCGDF), which houses our partner, the Good Food Fund.