Exposed: Shocking Truth Behind New U.S. Food Pyramid

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Guidelines are promoting full-fat dairy products and dairy products in general.

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They're promoting meat as well.

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But dairy and meat happen to be the number one and number two sources of saturated fat.

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Many of these reviewers have been paid by Big Beef and Big Dairy,

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National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the National Dairy Council,

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General Mills, National Cattlemen's Beef Association, National Pork Board,

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oh and Nova Nordisk, otherwise known as Big Pharma.

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All of the recommendations in these new dietary guidelines

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somehow support the inclusion of all of these animal products.

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There it is, the controversial new food pyramid.

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And we've got some breaking news for you.

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And we're happy to say that Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

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is petitioning HHS and USDA,

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Health and Human Services and the United States Department of Agriculture

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to withdraw the dietary guidelines over the unlawful industry influence.

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We're so excited to have Dr. Neil Barnard of Committee for Responsible,

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Committee's Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

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and Chloe Waterman, Friends of the Earth with us.

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Thank you so much, both of you for joining us.

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We'll start with Dr. Neil Barnard.

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What is wrong with this new food pyramid and what are you doing to fix it?

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Two big problems.

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The first is the process by which it came about.

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By law, it's supposed to be transparent.

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People are supposed to know what they're looking at, what evidence is it?

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How did the people choosing it get picked?

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That was all done behind closed doors.

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But apart from the process, the content is really something that food industry,

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especially the beef and dairy industries, would have written.

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Their fingerprints are all over it.

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It says promote meat, promote dairy products,

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and it really shows the naivety scientifically,

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but that's what the food industry wants.

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So we have filed a formal petition with the U.S. government

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to pull it back and start over.

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Tell us about this petition.

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It's not a lawsuit.

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Health and Human Services and USDA are being petitioned to withdraw these guidelines.

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How does that differ from a lawsuit and what is it that you're specifically asking for?

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Okay.

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Well, there is a law called the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act

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that says when you're pulling together dietary guidelines,

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you've got to have a transparent process.

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It's got to be based not on some special interest,

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but on the preponderance of scientific knowledge at that time.

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The committee has to be free of bias.

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But what we found, and as you were describing in the lead up,

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when you look at the nine people who put this together,

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the nine supposed scientists, five of them had beef industry

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and specifically Cattlemen's Beef Association links,

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and overlapping five had dairy links.

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Three of them were linked to the low-carb industry product.

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And then when you read what they come up with, they said,

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eat more meat, have more dairy, favor low-carb diets.

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And you're thinking it is the most embarrassingly industry-influenced committee.

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So when I say we're filing a petition, I don't mean we got 200 signatures and mailed it in.

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What I mean is it's a formal legal process where we go to the inspector general at the USDA

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and said, this does not follow the law.

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We went to the inspector general at HHS saying this is not following the law.

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Now, they have a certain amount of time to get back to us.

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If they don't, we will be in court.

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In other words, that's where the litigation comes in.

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Now, we've been there before.

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Back in the year 2000, the dietary guidelines at that time,

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25 years ago, were produced without transparency.

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Nobody knew what they were looking at.

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Six of the 11 committee members had industry ties at that time.

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We sued.

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Now, Jane, the government has a lot of attorneys.

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Back at that time, we had one.

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But it helps if you're right.

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And the judge looked at our attorney and said, you are right.

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These guidelines are not fitting with the law.

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And I have to say, after that, the process got so much better

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with each succeeding dietary guidelines.

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But we're back to square one.

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And we're going to be back in court if we don't get satisfaction with our petition.

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Well, amazing work.

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Bless you that you're actually challenging these.

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I want to go to Chloe Waterman of Friends of the Earth US, senior program manager.

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I was really encouraged to see your news release

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very strongly outlining the reasons why this new food pyramid is a disaster.

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A lot of environmental groups, big ones, don't take a stand on this.

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And I could list them.

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And so I just want to applaud Friends of the Earth for being

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at the forefront of this issue, because it's also an environmental issue.

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So let me just show a very little bit about the top part is the New York Times

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editorial, the new food pyramid brought to you by Big Meat.

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And below that is your news release, Friends of the Earth,

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Trump's dietary guidelines reject science backed advisory committee recommendations

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for shifts towards plant rich diet.

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So tell us, Chloe Waterman, what are the headlines of your

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stance on this, Friends of the Earth?

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Well, we completely agree with Dr. Barnard that this pyramid is not

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been driven by science whatsoever.

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It has been driven by the industry interests of Big Meat and Big Dairy.

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And you see that.

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If we put if our plates looks like the food pyramid and people put that much

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steak and cheese and whole milk, we would be exacerbating cardiovascular disease.

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We would be exacerbating obesity, hypertension, diabetes.

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This is not what the science backed recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines

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Advisory Committee, which was that group that was put together in a transparent

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process and made recommendations for plant forward dietary guidelines.

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And you know what's convenient, Jane, is that the diets that are best for our

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health are also the diets that are best for our planet.

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So if we eat a predominantly plant forward diet, if we eat fruits, vegetables, nuts,

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seeds, legumes, whole grains, that is good for our health.

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But those are also the foods that emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions that

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have less water pollution that contribute less to biodiversity loss.

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So the diets that are good for us are good for the planet.

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And this dietary guidelines is a failure on both counts.

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Yeah.

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And Nilo Foroshkarian is saying PCRM is badass.

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You will get them again.

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Here's what I find so confusing about all of this.

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And that is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the mastermind behind this,

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has changed his tune on factory farming.

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He used to be, as a environmental attorney, very anti-factory farming.

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He went after Smithfield.

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He compared factory farming of animals to terrorism.

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So you're nodding your head.

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Let me go back to you on that, Chloe.

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What happened?

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RFK Jr. has been a complete traitor on the issue of factory farms.

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I think if you talked to him today, he would still say that factory farming is bad.

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And that makes it completely irresponsible to be recommending a carnivore forward of

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meat and dairy heavy diet, because he knows, as well as the rest of us, that the vast majority

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of meat and dairy products in the United States are coming from factory farms.

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So when maybe he can afford the higher quality, higher welfare animal products that

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don't have as many pesticides in them, that don't have the hormones and antibiotics

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that end up being stored in the fatty tissues of animal products, but most Americans are going

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to be eating meat from factory farms.

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That's where most of our meat comes from.

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So these guidelines completely contradict his message and a core message of the Make

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America Healthy Again movement, that factory farming and this really pollution-intensive

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method that we have of raising animals in this country is OK.

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It's completely contradictory.

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And I just hope that more environmental organizations follow the lead of Friends

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of the Earth and make the connection between animal agriculture and climate change.

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It is one of the leading drivers, and it is the most ignored aspect of climate change.

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Now, I want to go back to you, Dr. Neal.

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This idea of emphasizing meat and dairy, you see it there on the upper left hand,

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when Americans already consume more animal products than any other part of the world.

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Americans eat more than 66 pounds of pork per year per capita.

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And of course, heart disease is the leading killer, which comes from clogged arteries

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that get clogged with cholesterol from animal products to a large degree.

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How is it possible that the simple math of if people are already eating more meat and

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dairy than they should, adding more on is going to make them sicker, not healthier,

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not get through to the people who came up with this?

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Or do they just not care?

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Are they that cynical?

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Well, I think we have to put the blame where it belongs, and that's really on industry.

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The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the dairy industry, their job is to promote

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their products.

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And that's what they do.

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And they're very successful at it.

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And so they try their best to push it in schools and push it into other federal guidelines

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and that sort of thing.

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And so if you were a secretary of HHS, Secretary Kennedy or others, they're entitled to have

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whatever views they want.

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And lay people never have a complete understanding of good nutrition.

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So that's what they need good, unbiased expert advisors for.

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And frankly, I think that the nine people who constituted the panel that pulled together

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the scientific findings, they really let the government down and they let the American

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people down.

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Their biases showed through.

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It was not a balanced group.

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And so what really needs to happen is we pull these guidelines back.

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You bring together true experts and a balanced panel of experts who can deliver to RFK, to

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the administration and to the public the information that they do deserve.

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Let's face it.

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Their families are at risk for disease as well.

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They need good information.

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And I don't think they were well served by the members of this committee.

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That's what needs to change.

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So people are asking, what can the average person do?

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Well, I can give you one answer.

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Support Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

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Support Friends of the Earth.

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Sign the petitions that go out against this.

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One of the problems we have here is that we're kind of in uncharted territory where perhaps

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even if you prove the industry influence, which I don't think would be very hard to

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prove, it's right there for everyone to see.

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It could just be ignored.

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It's we're sort of in an era of, you know, alternative facts.

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So how do we deal with this?

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How do we and what are the implications, Chloe, for institutions like hospitals, prisons,

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schools, et cetera?

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Well, that's something that's very concerning about these new dietary guidelines, because

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most Americans don't follow the dietary guidelines in their own diet.

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They do inform what ends up on our school lunch trays and in other public institutions.

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So school meals, for example, we serve seven billion school meals in the U.S.

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every year, and the dietary guidelines govern the standards for those school meals and therefore

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what ends up on the lunch trays of those children.

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That's a different process and a longer process.

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USDA still has to do a rulemaking process and propose new guidelines for the school

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meals that would align with these dietary guidelines.

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That's going to be a crucial opportunity for scientists and academics that should have

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been influencing this process that Dr. Barnard is talking about.

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For example, the scientists that are on the dietary guidelines advisory committee to be

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weighing in and ensuring that the way these guidelines are operationalized does not make

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our school meals even more meat and dairy heavy than they already are.

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Um, yeah, and everybody is saying thank you for fighting back.

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So we're getting a lot of response on that.

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Now, here is something that I find very bizarre.

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Okay, as Charles Dickens said, it was the best of times.

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It was the worst of times.

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Or maybe he started with it was the worst of times.

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It was the best of times.

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I don't remember.

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But there are also some developments that are positive that, of course, have been completely

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ignored by mainstream media.

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And let's discuss a couple of them.

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One is that there's this new law called the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which sounds

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terrible in the sense that it sounds like it's pushing dairy.

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But within that, there is a new rule that says non-dairy beverages can be fed to kids

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at school without a doctor's note.

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So that's a positive.

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I want to go to Dr.

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Neil Barnard, because in this upside down world we're living in, you'd think, oh, my

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God, the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act.

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Now they're pushing whole milk.

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And this is a disaster.

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But it's also saying that you don't need a doctor's note for soy milk or oat milk or

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almond milk.

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Take us through this, Dr.

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Neil, because I think it's hard for people to navigate all of this contradictory developments.

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Jane, you said it.

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And I want to thank Chloe for her work on this as well.

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When this act was first proposed a long time ago, it was terrible, exactly as you said.

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The whole thing was to put whole milk back into schools so the kids were going to get

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all the saturated fat and all the calories that had been taken out for a while.

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It was going to be put back.

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That was terrible.

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It was also inevitable.

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There was no way that that act was not going to be passed.

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So we and others worked very hard to get what we could.

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And so the first thing is, just as you said, Jane, right now, as of the signature on this

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law, which was, I think, yesterday or the day before, it's now law.

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Any school can serve cow's milk.

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They can serve soy milk.

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So a kid comes in, they're 16 years old, and they say, give me the soy milk.

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I'd like vanilla.

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The school can serve it before they couldn't.

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That's a good step.

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Secondly, we got a little frozen there, but that's OK.

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Go ahead.

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We got you back.

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All right.

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Well, you're hearing about this.

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We all froze for a second.

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I think freezing is part of our new society.

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So we'll get back to Dr. Neal in a second.

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What do you have to say?

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Well, Jane, I think I can finish his thought on this because Friends of the Earth and Physicians

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Committee worked really closely together on this.

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He described one of the things this would do.

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The second thing that this new law does is it gives students who have disabilities,

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which includes lactose intolerance, an affirmative right to a non-dairy milk at school.

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It used to be that those students would have to have a doctor's note describing their disability.

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Now this note can come just from a parent, and those students have the affirmative right

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to get a non-dairy milk at school.

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For your audience watching, if your student is lactose intolerant,

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you can now write your school to let them know your student is lactose intolerant and

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right and requires a non-dairy beverage, and they have to give that to you.

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For every other school, for every other student, your school is authorized now.

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They're allowed for the first time to put swim milk on the lunch line,

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and that is a huge step forward.

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And then there was another positive development.

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And this, again, I don't know if this is like even a broken clock is right twice a day.

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I don't know what's going on here.

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But another positive development is

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Senator Schiff has introduced legislation to expand plant-based meal options for students.

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I've got to read the fine print because this is huge.

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Of course, the mainstream media pretty much ignoring this as per usual.

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But here's the quote, providing additional resources to school districts so they can

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provide more plant-based food options brings us a step closer to ensuring that all students

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can have access to healthy, sustainable meals.

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As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I'm proud to introduce this legislation.

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Wow.

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I mean, that's huge.

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Absolutely.

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This is a bill that our coalition, the Plant Powered School Meals Coalition,

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of which Friends of the Earth and the Physicians Committee are both members,

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have been working on now for three Congresses.

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But this is the first year that this bill is being introduced in the Senate.

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So that is a huge milestone.

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And it shows the momentum that we've been able to build on this because of the student

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demand for these options.

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Students across the country are going to their schools and they're saying,

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I want more plant-based options.

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Some of them are doing it because they're bringing their environmental activism to the

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cafeteria.

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Other students care about this because they just want a greater variety of healthy protein

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choices.

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But their schools are having a hard time getting all of the resources to provide these expanded

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options.

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So this bill would give those schools grants to be able to expand healthy plant-based options

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so that plant-based options become the norm on K-12 menus instead of the exception.

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So how would you summarize all this?

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Because when I started looking into it, it started as a disaster for plant-based.

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We've got this new food pyramid that puts meat, you see, it looks like a chicken, steak,

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cheese, fish, eggs, which are cholesterol bombs, packed with cholesterol, milk.

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It looks like dairy, yogurt.

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And we've got Dr. Neal back with us.

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So I'll ask him, how do we balance all this out?

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We've got this horrible news with the emphasis on meat and dairy in the new food pyramid.

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But then we've got this great new legislation introduced by Senator Adam Schiff from California

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and that would expand plant-based meal options.

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And then we've got the new non-dairy options for students.

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Where are we, Dr. Neal?

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I think we have to make the choices for ourselves and we have to make the choices especially

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for our children right now.

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And so that means the government isn't going to put the food into your mouth.

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That's your choice.

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So there are healthful foods in schools.

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There are healthful foods at the store.

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Those are the ones to emphasize.

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In the meanwhile, plenty of us are working to make the policies better, but we have to

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have the healthy foods.

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00:20:03,460 --> 00:20:06,780
And that means the plant-based foods, the vegan foods for our kids.

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So, you know, we all know that veganism, the plant-based movement has been under attack.

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And just to give it the 30-second or 15-second recap, when Beyond Meat's stock went public

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in 2019 and people from the mainstream media, which I used to be in, had ignored me for

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years and basically acted like I was a little crazy, suddenly started texting me.

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You were so prescient.

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Oh, this is so amazing.

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00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:39,360
Well, I think the meat and dairy industry saw that Beyond Meat, there they were on the

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NASDAQ, the most successful initial public offering in years.

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They freaked out and they declared war on the plant-based movement.

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And the mainstream media, sadly, jumped on and has been writing a lot of negative articles,

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most recently in New York Magazine.

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But I do believe that every social justice movement doesn't go straight up.

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It has its, it's like a roller coaster, but the arc is positive.

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00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:15,580
And I do feel that there's going to be a boomerang.

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I do feel that there is this overemphasis on, oh, meat's back.

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I believe we're a lot stronger than anybody's giving us credit for, and it's going to start

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showing soon.

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My question is, how is that going to transpire?

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Dr. Neal and then Chloe.

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We are seeing this at every possible front.

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On the scientific front, the evidence supporting a plant-based diet is stronger than ever.

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The evidence that the optimal amount of meat in your diet is zero, that evidence is stronger

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than ever too.

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The evidence linking milk to breast cancer and to prostate cancer is stronger than it

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has ever been.

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The American Medical Association now has policies promoting plant-based diets.

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Every restaurant you go into has options that are there.

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None of that was there a generation ago.

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So it's always a little bit of a stepwise path, but we are clearly winning, and there

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is no question that the diet of the future is a plant-based vegan diet.

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And I like to point out for those who say, oh, you know, the sky's falling.

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The word vegan was only created in 1944, while Pythagoras talked about veganism back in 500

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BCE, he did it as sort of meatless.

355
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There was no actual word for vegan until 1944.

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So when we put that in context, Chloe, we're doing quite well for a movement that is still

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in its infancy.

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Where do you see us going, Chloe, as we enter this new phase where, again, I have to quote

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00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:58,140
Charles Dickens, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

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Plant forward is the future.

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I agree.

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And this week, I've had the fortune to spend some time with some young people who are part

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of our Plant Powered School Meals coalition, high school students and college students

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who have been advocating for plant-based options in their own school district and for the policy

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00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:17,980
changes that will facilitate more plant-forward menus.

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And they and their peers and their generation have no question that plant-based is the diet

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that is going to support their health, and it's the diet that supports the health of

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the planet they're going to inherit.

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00:23:29,660 --> 00:23:37,320
You know, I have to say, looking at this issue, and there's something called the 80-20

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rule, or is it the 20-80 rule, that 80 percent of the outcomes are based on 20 percent of

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the inputs.

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And when I read about that, I was like, that's meat and dairy.

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It is a leading, some have made a strong argument, depending on how you calculate this very big

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subject, the leading cause of climate change.

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But nobody argues.

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Everybody agrees it's a leading cause.

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Then you have the leading cause of the health crisis, heart disease being America's leading

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00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:03,220
killer.

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Then cancer, processed meat is officially cancer causing.

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You have human world hunger, where we're feeding so much of the food that we grow, like more

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00:24:13,020 --> 00:24:16,020
than 80 percent of soy goes into factory farmed animals.

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When people are dying of starvation, where we could redirect that soy to them.

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00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:28,700
So many of the world's problems boil down to killing and eating animals for food.

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00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:37,800
When will we hit a critical mass, do you think, Dr. Rao, and I quote Dr. Silas Rao, who has

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00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:42,040
said that we must transition to a plant-based culture to avoid a climate apocalypse.

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When do you think that the so-called best and the brightest out there will actually

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00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:54,920
wise up to this, given that climate change is no longer hypothetical.

388
00:24:55,500 --> 00:25:01,520
It is real to wit, people I know losing their homes in the fires that occurred last year

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00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:02,420
here in California.

390
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:06,580
Well, I think you put your finger on it.

391
00:25:06,620 --> 00:25:07,700
What do people really care about?

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00:25:07,780 --> 00:25:09,760
They care about the environment that they're living in.

393
00:25:09,860 --> 00:25:10,640
They care about their own health.

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00:25:11,340 --> 00:25:14,540
There's one other piece of this that they shouldn't forget about, and that's that people

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00:25:14,540 --> 00:25:15,360
care about their children.

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They care about the health of the next generation.

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00:25:17,420 --> 00:25:23,360
So the meat industry or the dairy industry will try to come up with distractions.

398
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They'll say, the problem isn't meat.

399
00:25:25,740 --> 00:25:27,400
The problem is soy.

400
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:28,460
Soy causes cancer.

401
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,080
Well, research showed that soy helps prevent cancer.

402
00:25:32,540 --> 00:25:36,000
Women consuming the most soy reduce their risk of breast cancer.

403
00:25:36,140 --> 00:25:38,580
Men consuming soy reduce their risk of prostate cancer.

404
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:42,460
And the other piece of this is birth defects.

405
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,960
One of the latest things that the meat and dairy industry has been doing is saying, don't

406
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:47,940
worry about our products.

407
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:51,680
The products you should worry about are processed foods.

408
00:25:52,220 --> 00:25:53,660
Processed foods will hurt you.

409
00:25:54,020 --> 00:25:59,080
Well, it turns out, as you may remember, that we used to have spina bifida, the neural tube

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00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:01,620
defect, in very large numbers.

411
00:26:01,940 --> 00:26:08,700
And in 1998, the FDA said, put folic acid, it's a B vitamin, into processed foods.

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00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:15,700
So every box of cornflakes, every box of Wheaties, all breads, grain products were fortified.

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00:26:15,700 --> 00:26:19,880
And spina bifida dropped by 23% within just a matter of years.

414
00:26:20,420 --> 00:26:27,620
Now, with the beef industry saying that those products are the problem, by banning those

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00:26:27,620 --> 00:26:33,460
healthy processed foods, they're going to bring back the birth defects that will hurt women

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00:26:33,460 --> 00:26:33,900
and children.

417
00:26:34,300 --> 00:26:35,220
We can't let that happen.

418
00:26:35,340 --> 00:26:36,720
The problem is the meat industry.

419
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:38,480
The problem is the dairy industry.

420
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:39,440
Now, don't get me wrong.

421
00:26:39,500 --> 00:26:42,320
Those are business people trying to feed their own families.

422
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:48,820
But they, like the tobacco industry before them, can get into healthy industries, and

423
00:26:48,820 --> 00:26:49,700
we can all be better off.

424
00:26:50,100 --> 00:26:55,080
Well, I have to say that you're taking the legal action.

425
00:26:56,060 --> 00:27:00,120
PCRM, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Friends of the Earth is in there

426
00:27:00,120 --> 00:27:01,260
in the halls of Congress.

427
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,340
But social media is talking about this like crazy.

428
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:12,020
And I'd like to play a couple of social media clips and get some response on how it's being

429
00:27:12,020 --> 00:27:16,740
framed, because a lot of people are looking at this food pyramid and going, this does

430
00:27:16,740 --> 00:27:17,680
not add up.

431
00:27:17,820 --> 00:27:23,120
There is something, I hate to say it, fishy, don't like to use that phrase about this.

432
00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:25,620
Now, here's Dr. Matthew Nagra covering more confusion.

433
00:27:25,900 --> 00:27:29,920
How they came to the conclusion that vegan diets tend to provide inadequate amounts of

434
00:27:29,920 --> 00:27:33,020
this long list of nutrients is actually unbelievable.

435
00:27:33,380 --> 00:27:38,040
What they essentially did is look at what would happen to nutrient intake if you took a vegetarian

436
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:41,620
diet and then removed eggs and dairy, as well as fortified soy milk.

437
00:27:41,620 --> 00:27:44,200
But then replace them with absolutely nothing.

438
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,540
So the take-home message is, if you stop eating animal foods and fortified soy milk

439
00:27:49,540 --> 00:27:53,240
for some reason, and replace them with air, you get less nutrients.

440
00:27:53,460 --> 00:27:54,340
Mind-blowing stuff.

441
00:27:54,460 --> 00:27:58,220
And the scientist who was responsible for reviewing the data on vegan and vegetarian

442
00:27:58,220 --> 00:28:02,660
diets for these guidelines didn't even know that this is how the research was done until

443
00:28:02,660 --> 00:28:04,300
it was pointed out to him on X.

444
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:08,940
I mean, his job in developing this scientific report for the new guidelines was to know

445
00:28:08,940 --> 00:28:09,460
these things.

446
00:28:09,460 --> 00:28:14,040
And unfortunately, this wasn't just an egregious error that made its way onto a blog post or

447
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:14,460
podcast.

448
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:18,260
These are the dietary guidelines for Americans for the next five years.

449
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:18,700
Amazing.

450
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:31,120
Using some humor there, Chloe, what's so upsetting about these guidelines is that they

451
00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:39,940
attack a plant-based diet, proactively attack a plant-based diet, even while putting the

452
00:28:39,940 --> 00:28:42,320
vegetables up there on the right side.

453
00:28:42,500 --> 00:28:44,420
So none of it really makes a lot of sense.

454
00:28:45,180 --> 00:28:48,760
Well, Jane, I'm glad you picked up on it, because it is a little bit nuanced.

455
00:28:48,780 --> 00:28:54,680
And I would say the food pyramid is particularly offensive to look at, in contrast with what

456
00:28:54,680 --> 00:28:56,840
the science recommends around plant-forward diet.

457
00:28:57,220 --> 00:29:01,860
When you actually look at the text of the guidelines themselves, they recommend more

458
00:29:01,860 --> 00:29:07,240
protein, but they do not present a preference for animal protein over plant protein.

459
00:29:07,240 --> 00:29:12,860
The written guidelines themselves actually say, have more protein, protein should come

460
00:29:12,860 --> 00:29:14,880
from animal sources and plant-based sources.

461
00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:19,900
What they should have done is say, most, if not all, of your protein should come from

462
00:29:19,900 --> 00:29:22,740
plant-based sources, because that is what the science points to.

463
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:28,280
And so if we are going to meet the higher protein recommendations from the dietary guidelines,

464
00:29:28,420 --> 00:29:31,460
it's critical that people do that by consuming more plants.

465
00:29:31,740 --> 00:29:35,660
That message is getting lost, because the guidelines themselves are so confusing.

466
00:29:35,660 --> 00:29:40,980
You put steak at the top of the pyramid, but you maintain the limit on saturated fat, which

467
00:29:40,980 --> 00:29:42,060
is the right thing to do.

468
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:43,920
How can those things go together?

469
00:29:45,300 --> 00:29:49,560
The Trump administration set out to try to have clearer guidelines, but these are only

470
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:50,200
more confusing.

471
00:29:51,980 --> 00:29:57,860
Yeah, one of the obvious things, and a six-year-old child could figure this out, there's only

472
00:29:57,860 --> 00:30:00,020
so many foods you can eat in a given day.

473
00:30:00,580 --> 00:30:07,000
Considering that whereas Americans are already over-consuming meat and dairy, and by the

474
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:12,240
way, nobody mentions in any of this fast food, let's be real for a second.

475
00:30:12,380 --> 00:30:16,800
The reason why two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese is because of fast food

476
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:17,260
joints.

477
00:30:18,020 --> 00:30:23,840
People eating fast food at all the fast joints, fast food joints on the strip.

478
00:30:24,620 --> 00:30:32,220
That's like, I would say, just crazy guess off the top of my head, at least 65% of the

479
00:30:32,220 --> 00:30:33,560
over-consumption of calories.

480
00:30:33,740 --> 00:30:38,820
They've done numerous stories where if you eat one of these fast food meals, you get more

481
00:30:38,820 --> 00:30:40,960
than your daily intake of calories.

482
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:45,900
It's so shocking to me that they don't, well, it's not shocking, because obviously it's about

483
00:30:45,900 --> 00:30:49,740
money and business, but they don't mention the words fast food to my knowledge.

484
00:30:50,060 --> 00:30:50,760
Maybe they do.

485
00:30:51,080 --> 00:30:52,540
I haven't read all the fine print.

486
00:30:53,100 --> 00:30:58,540
They're not emphasizing that the real problem is America's

487
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:03,020
miracle miles filled with fast food joints.

488
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,460
When are we going to get to that, Dr. Neil Barnard?

489
00:31:06,620 --> 00:31:10,660
Because to me, that is the heart, the crux of the problem.

490
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:14,820
Fast food is a very relatively recent phenomenon.

491
00:31:14,820 --> 00:31:25,280
It literally started maybe 1960s, took off maybe 80s, 90s, but it has increased exponentially

492
00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:28,760
and the obesity crisis going right up there with it.

493
00:31:29,260 --> 00:31:31,620
Well, there's nothing wrong with food being fast.

494
00:31:31,860 --> 00:31:33,660
It's a question of what that food is.

495
00:31:33,980 --> 00:31:39,260
So if you go into Subway and you take all the meat items and the cheese items and so

496
00:31:39,260 --> 00:31:42,560
forth, and if that's what you're going to pick, you are likely to gain weight.

497
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:43,840
You're going to have a high risk of diabetes.

498
00:31:43,840 --> 00:31:50,280
If you go in there and say, no, cut open that baguette and put in all the veggies and so

499
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:52,960
forth, you're going to get something that's actually a pretty healthy sandwich.

500
00:31:53,380 --> 00:31:54,560
You can go into Taco Bell.

501
00:31:54,660 --> 00:31:56,400
You can go into any one of the fast food chains.

502
00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:03,160
And if what you order is the plant-based choice, you'll do better, even if it is fast.

503
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:05,040
Well, I agree.

504
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:11,820
At the end of the day, they're just boxes on a street and those boxes can be filled with

505
00:32:11,820 --> 00:32:19,060
anything. And there have been efforts by sort of the more modern casual dining and

506
00:32:19,060 --> 00:32:24,860
or fast food in the manner of, let's say, Chipotle to offer more vegan options.

507
00:32:25,220 --> 00:32:28,460
And there are vegan options in some of the fast food restaurants.

508
00:32:28,660 --> 00:32:29,660
I agree with you there.

509
00:32:30,060 --> 00:32:34,380
Let me jump back in here, Jane, though, because you did put your finger on something really

510
00:32:34,380 --> 00:32:34,800
important.

511
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,640
What they're actually serving has been manipulated by industry.

512
00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:45,520
If you look at, for example, at Wendy's, I can show you a contract that Wendy's signed

513
00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:48,620
with the U.S. government to promote cheese.

514
00:32:48,860 --> 00:32:52,020
By law, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has to promote cheese.

515
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:56,380
And one of the ways they do it is they contract with Wendy's, with Burger King, with pizza

516
00:32:56,380 --> 00:33:00,460
chains to have more and more cheese in their products.

517
00:33:00,780 --> 00:33:01,780
I can show you these contracts.

518
00:33:02,220 --> 00:33:03,000
And what has happened?

519
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:08,940
Back a century ago, 1909, the USDA started tracking cheese intake in the U.S.

520
00:33:09,260 --> 00:33:14,540
The average American ate only about 3.8 pounds of cheese in a year.

521
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:17,800
Today, are we eating 3.8 pounds of cheese?

522
00:33:17,900 --> 00:33:21,420
No, we're eating 40 pounds of cheese per year.

523
00:33:22,060 --> 00:33:24,760
Fast food is the vehicle that's come in.

524
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:31,140
But if you go to Taco Bell and you say, give me the bean burrito, whole cheese, that's

525
00:33:31,140 --> 00:33:31,840
an OK choice.

526
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:36,300
And if you make the healthful choice at those places, you're going to.

527
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:44,200
Well, I know you have one of your podcasts that is a PCRM podcast coming up at the top

528
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:46,500
of the hour, so I don't want to keep you much longer.

529
00:33:46,740 --> 00:33:49,960
We're so grateful for both of you giving your time.

530
00:33:50,340 --> 00:33:53,420
But I do want to ask you a couple of quick questions.

531
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:54,500
One is the media.

532
00:33:54,860 --> 00:34:00,500
Now, one of the reasons we started Unchained TV is that all these developments are completely

533
00:34:00,500 --> 00:34:01,320
ignored in the media.

534
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:09,960
I looked actually for information on the new plant-based milk option that is now part of

535
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:13,840
law, and I found one reference to it in one.

536
00:34:14,020 --> 00:34:20,580
This is big news, and it is being completely ignored or almost completely ignored by mainstream

537
00:34:20,580 --> 00:34:21,100
media.

538
00:34:21,540 --> 00:34:26,020
The non-dairy options for students that are now available with a parent's signature.

539
00:34:26,199 --> 00:34:28,080
You don't need a doctor's note anymore.

540
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:33,639
So there's the media ignoring the story.

541
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:42,620
And then the other aspect is, how do we, given that the news, the mainstream media is ignoring

542
00:34:42,620 --> 00:34:45,280
this, how do we let parents know that this is an option?

543
00:34:45,620 --> 00:34:47,840
And I'll give you just an example.

544
00:34:48,500 --> 00:34:50,840
We did pass a law, correct me if I'm wrong, Dr.

545
00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:55,780
Neal, here in California that says when you're in the hospital, you have a right to a plant-based

546
00:34:55,780 --> 00:34:56,200
option.

547
00:34:56,200 --> 00:35:01,460
I can't tell you how many times people have called me, Jane, I'm in the hospital with a

548
00:35:01,460 --> 00:35:03,720
broken arm and they won't give me a plant-based.

549
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:05,400
I said, it's the law.

550
00:35:06,020 --> 00:35:07,620
Well, they don't know about it.

551
00:35:09,100 --> 00:35:15,220
So if there is a law that says plant-based milks are an option, but the parents don't

552
00:35:15,220 --> 00:35:18,880
know about it and the schools are not enforcing it, how do we make it happen?

553
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:21,520
I'd love to get both of you on this.

554
00:35:21,660 --> 00:35:25,120
And it seems like you really want to say something, so I'll let you go first, Dr.

555
00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:25,400
Neal.

556
00:35:26,220 --> 00:35:27,620
You are absolutely right.

557
00:35:27,980 --> 00:35:30,020
You're in the hospital, you don't have any choice, you're stuck.

558
00:35:30,460 --> 00:35:32,780
And by law, what you said is exactly right.

559
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:36,860
You must have access to a plant-based meal while you're there.

560
00:35:36,940 --> 00:35:37,400
Same thing.

561
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:42,160
Somebody gets picked up for their awaiting trial or they're incarcerated, they can't

562
00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:42,860
handle what they eat.

563
00:35:43,100 --> 00:35:45,060
By law, you must be able to get a plant-based item too.

564
00:35:45,940 --> 00:35:49,620
Schools aren't there yet, unfortunately, so people do have to speak up for themselves.

565
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:53,320
If the media doesn't cover it, social media is your ticket.

566
00:35:53,320 --> 00:35:57,680
So I think people should be using social media aggressively to make sure that everybody

567
00:35:57,680 --> 00:35:58,760
knows what their rights are.

568
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:00,200
Thank you.

569
00:36:00,500 --> 00:36:01,020
Chloe.

570
00:36:01,720 --> 00:36:02,580
I agree.

571
00:36:02,780 --> 00:36:07,200
And that's why we're picking up the slack where the media might be leaving out some of

572
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:07,420
this.

573
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:09,580
The Plant Powered School Meals Coalition, we have a website.

574
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:15,460
We will have resources up next week with guidance for how parents can utilize the new law, how

575
00:36:15,460 --> 00:36:19,460
school food operators can utilize this new law to add plant-based options.

576
00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:21,240
It's going to be a big national campaign.

577
00:36:21,240 --> 00:36:25,340
We need parents from across the country who want these options for their students.

578
00:36:25,460 --> 00:36:29,560
We need the students across the country to make this known to their school food directors.

579
00:36:29,820 --> 00:36:30,960
And we're going to get it done.

580
00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:35,220
We'll see soy milk on the shelves at school meals by the next school year.

581
00:36:35,720 --> 00:36:37,840
Well, again, I want to thank both of you.

582
00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:39,300
You are very busy people.

583
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:43,920
I feel honored that you've taken the time to appear on Unchained TV's Truth Files.

584
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:53,380
And I do want to also say, PCRM, thank God for you standing up to these guidelines and

585
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:55,840
challenging them legally.

586
00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:57,360
That's what's needed.

587
00:36:57,620 --> 00:37:00,500
And please keep us posted on your efforts.

588
00:37:00,940 --> 00:37:06,940
I'm going to put it up one more time so people who joined us late can see that PCRM

589
00:37:06,940 --> 00:37:12,600
is petitioning Health and Human Services and the United States Department of Agriculture

590
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:17,360
to withdraw dietary guidelines over unlawful industry influence.

591
00:37:17,940 --> 00:37:22,300
And I also want to give a shout out to Friends of the Earth.

592
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:29,580
And if you look here, that's their very strong news release that is filled with so many points

593
00:37:29,580 --> 00:37:34,080
about why these new guidelines are really terrible.

594
00:37:34,420 --> 00:37:39,520
And one of the points we didn't get to is the toxic chemicals that are in meat and how

595
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:44,660
if people increase their meat consumption, that could create other problems.

596
00:37:45,100 --> 00:37:50,560
But I do want to give a shout out to Friends of the Earth for being an environmental organization

597
00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:58,220
that is looking at the food issue, because I cannot tell you how many environmental organizations

598
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:03,200
I come into contact with that don't want to see no evil, hear no evil.

599
00:38:03,540 --> 00:38:05,380
They have events where they're serving meat.

600
00:38:05,780 --> 00:38:08,140
They're not looking at this issue at all.

601
00:38:08,140 --> 00:38:12,560
And I just hope what Friends of the Earth is doing rubs off on some of those other

602
00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,440
environmental groups, because food is an environmental issue.

603
00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:23,700
So thank you so much, both of you, very much for joining us on this edition of Truth Files

604
00:38:23,700 --> 00:38:24,600
with me.

605
00:38:24,820 --> 00:38:32,720
And I would love to have you come back as we continue to bring the real information to

606
00:38:32,720 --> 00:38:36,720
the people that is truly being ignored by mainstream media.

607
00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:37,840
See you next time.

608
00:39:06,720 --> 00:39:07,300
Bye.