Pope Francis has been offered a $1 million donation to a charity of his choice – if he follows a vegan diet during Lent.

The Million Dollar Vegan campaign – which is backed by a host of celebrities, environmentalists and scientists – wants to ‘highlight the devastating impact of animal agriculture’ including deforestation and biodiversity loss as well the suffering it causes to billions of farmed animals.

Campaign supporters include musician Moby, actor Mena Suvari, and scientist Joseph Poore of Oxford University. It has the backing of environmentalists George Monbiot and Chris Packham. Paul McCartney, a long-time vegetarian and co-founder of the Meat Free Monday campaign, also supports Million Dollar Vegan.

Go vegan

A letter written to the pope by 12-year-old animal rights and environmental campaigner Genesis Butler with the help of the Million Dollar Vegan team – will be printed today in national newspapers in 15 countries across five continents.

In the letter, Butler urges Francis to try a vegan diet for Lent, highlighting the connection between climate change and pollution, and the inefficiency of animal farming and how it contributes to world hunger, the extinction of wildlife and the suffering of farmed animals. These are all issues that Pope Francis has spoken out on in his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si.’

“Farming and slaughtering animals causes a lot of suffering and is also a leading cause of climate change, deforestation, and species loss,” Butler wrote in the letter.

“When we feed animals crops that humans can eat, it is wasteful. And with a growing world population, we cannot afford to be wasteful.”

As part of the Million Dollar Vegan campaign – which was created by Veganuary Founders Matthew Glover and Jane Land – a petition has also been created to ask the pope to try vegan for Lent. If he agrees, the Blue Horizon International Foundation will donate $1 million to the charity or charities of the pope’s choice.

Bold vegan campaign

“We are launching this deliberately bold, audacious campaign to jolt our world leaders from their complacency,” said Matthew Glover, the CEO of Million Dollar Vegan and Co-founder of Veganuary.

“For too long they have failed to act on evidence of the damage caused to people and the planet by animal agriculture. Worse, many have defended and subsidized that very industry. But the evidence now is stark and compelling, and we cannot afford for them to remain silent any longer.

“We are thankful that Pope Francis has spoken out on these issues and that is why we are humbly asking him to try vegan for Lent and set an example of how each of us can align our principles of caring and compassion with our actions.”

Million Dollar Vegan is encouraging people of all backgrounds to try vegan for Lent and has produced a free Vegan Starter Kit – written in multiple languages and with country-specific content – that is available to download.

You can find out more about the Million Dollar Vegan campaign here

https://www.change.org/p/pope-francis-ask-pope-francis-to-try-vegan-for-lent

My best regards, Venus

WAV Comment – we know that this has happened, but some very good issues – and quite rightly; Trumpet did not talk about them !

Mark,

In tonight’s State of the Union, we can expect President Trump to make a number of false or misleading claims. Unfortunately, we don’t expect President Trump to talk about the crucial issues that reveal the REAL state of our union: rising global warming emissions, weakened public health protections, suppressed scientific studies, undermined fuel economy standards, undue industry influence in the government, and more.

Join us during the State of the Union to set the record straight on important issues President Trump will likely misrepresent or omit during his address. During the president’s speech, we’ll be tweeting using the #RealSOTU hashtag. Join in the conversation using some of our tweets below or with your own thoughts. Help us highlight the growing crisis of climate change and the importance of science-based protections in keeping us safe and healthy.

Considering last year’s speech and other factors, here are things the president will likely refer to…and the reality he’ll likely skip:

The Economy: It’s practically guaranteed that President Trump will talk about the economy, but here’s what you probably won’t hear:

• Want to talk about improving the economy and job creation? How about investing in a #cleanenergy economy. In 2016, 1 in 50 new American jobs was in #solar. #RealSOTU #SOTU
• • No one wants to pay more money at the gas pump. Fortunately, strong #CleanerCars standards are saving consumers money, and could add more than 100k jobs in 2025. #RealSOTU #SOTU
• • If we’re really worried about the economy then we MUST #ActOnClimate. We’re already experiencing billions of dollars of economic losses from climate-related events and the science shows it will only get worse if we don’t act now. #RealSOTU #SOTU
• • Farm incomes declined again in 2018, and the National Farmers Union—representing 200,000 family farmers across the US—is warning of a full-blown farm crisis. Policies that cater to big agribusiness aren’t helping. #RealSOTU #SOTU

Security: Given the recent shutdown showdown over the border wall, President Trump will likely spend a lot of time focused on the idea of border security, while ignoring some of the real threats to our country:

• Let’s talk about REAL threats to our security: Last month the director of National Intelligence testified before Congress and stressed the grave threat climate change poses to national security. #RealSOTU #SOTU
• • Spending >$1 trillion to rebuild the nuclear arsenal while walking away from successful arms control agreements will make us much less safe and greatly increase the chance of nuclear war #RealSOTU #SOTU

Regulatory Rollback: The president will likely present cuts in regulations as a step forward, but the reality is:

• A lot of regulations are actual public health and environmental protections designed to keep our communities safe. The Trump administration’s pattern of undermining science is damaging our health and safety. #RealSOTU #SOTU
• • The #RealSOTU is that communities of color, low-income communities, and tribal communities are disproportionately affected by problems from climate change & environmental contamination to lack of access to healthy food. We must do better. #SOTU

Yours Sincerely,

Kate Cell
Climate Campaign Manager
Union of Concerned Scientists

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