Down to Earth will celebrate the upcoming Great American Meatout on Saturday March 20th with a special sale featuring 30% off 20 best-selling meat substitutes. The sale will be held all day at all its stores. Meatout is an international observance that encourages everyone to kick the meat habit for one day and evolve to a wholesome, compassionate diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.
The sale honors the 25th anniversary of this annual event that will be celebrated in all 50 states and 30 other countries. The Great American Meatout is the world's largest annual grassroots diet education campaign. The Meatout draws massive support from consumer, environmental and animal protection advocates, as well as from public officials, health care providers, educators, the mass media, meat-free food manufacturers and retailers. “The single most important thing an individual can do for their health, the environment and the sake of the innocent animals is to adopt a vegetarian diet,” says Mark Fergusson, Down to Earth’s Chief Vegetarian Officer. Fergusson explains that it helps:
- Reduce our risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other chronic diseases that cripple and kill nearly 1.4 million Americans annually.
- Decrease our exposure to infectious pathogens like Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter, which kill several thousand Americans annually and sicken millions more.
- Raise our energy level, lower our food budget, and simplify food preparation and cleanup.
- Free up grains and other foods that can be used to feed the world's hungry. Animals are extremely inefficient "protein converters;" it can take up to 16 pounds of grain to make 1 pound of beef.
- Preserve our topsoil, water, and other food production resources vital to the survival of our children and their children.
- Protect our forests, grasslands, and other wildlife habitats from encroachment by cattle ranchers while reducing the polluting effects of methane, soil particles, manure, and pesticides on our air and water.
- Save animals from caging, crowding, deprivation, drugging, mutilation, manhandling, and agonizing slaughter. Each person who adopts a plant-based diet saves over 80 innocent, sentient animals each year. Over a lifetime, an individual can save more than 6,000 animals just by going vegetarian.
Global Meatout observances are coordinated by FARM, a U.S. nonprofit public-interest organization. Individual events are conducted by local consumer and animal protection groups, and through special events such as the upcoming sale from Down to Earth. For more information about the Global Meatout event itself visit: http://www.farmusa.org/.