Members of Parliament Go Vegan for PETA India’s ‘World Environment Day’ Campaign

Numerous members of parliament (MP) from across party lines have pledged to eat vegan – by forgoing meat, dairy, and other animal-derived foods – for World Environment Day on 5 June to raise awareness of the power we all have to help the environment by choosing more Earth-friendly foods.

The participating MPs are Maneka Gandhi, member of Parliament from Pilibhit; Shafiqur Rahman Barq, member of Parliament from Sambhal; Bellana Chandra Sekhar, member of Parliament from Vizianagaram; Ajay Bhatt, member of Parliament from Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar; Anuradha Chinta, member of Parliament from Amalapuram; Sunita Duggal, member of Parliament from Sirsa; Vijay Hansdak, member of Parliament from Rajmahal; and Kaushal Kishore, member of Parliament from Mohan Lalganj.

Animal agriculture – the industrialised breeding, rearing, use, and slaughter of animals for human consumption – is a leading cause of pollution, ocean dead zones, land use, habitat destruction, and species extinction. It also uses one-third of the world’s freshwater resources and, by some estimates, creates more greenhouse-gas emissions than all of the world’s transportation systems combined. A study in the journal Nature found that greenhouse-gas emissions from food systems would be reduced by half if the world turned to a mainly plant-based diet. Researchers at the University of Oxford found that every person who goes vegan lowers their carbon footprint by up to 73% and saves nearly 200 animals per year.

“I’m delighted to join PETA India’s green initiative by eating vegan for World Environment Day. Just by eating more plants over animal-derived foods, we can fight climate change and other environmental effects with simple diet change,” says MP Anuradha Chinta.

Meanwhile, MP Kaushal Kishore shared this video message urging everyone to eat vegan this World Environment Day.

समस्त प्रदेशवासियों व देशवासियों से अपील है 5 जून पर्यावरण दिवस के दिन मांस, मदिरा तंबाकू का सेवन न करें व इसका त्याग करें। #नशेकोनखुशियोंकोहां pic.twitter.com/at3TCmRT15

— Kaushal Kishore (@mp_kaushal) June 1, 2021