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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has unveiled his so-called “Rabbit Plan”, in which he wants people to breed and eat rabbits “for protein” due to shortages of red meat and poultry. It pains us to see how widespread the delusion is about protein only coming from animal foods. It’s so pervasive that even heads-of-state, like Maduro, appear to be completely unaware that protein is plentiful in (and preferable from) plant foods. This persistent misconception harms animals, the environment, our own health, and world food security (which is, ironically, the underlying impetus that led to this “plan” in the first place). While issues of world hunger and food security are complex and numerous, in theory, we could feed everyone on the planet right now, with food to spare, but while feeding vast amounts of crops to livestock to produce meat and other animal products. Our hearts go out to everyone suffering from food insecurity, but this push more animal foods is not the effective, sustainable, practical or ethical answer to the problem. Access to plant foods needs to be a human right, and we sincerely hope President Maduro and other leaders around the world start to grasp the urgent importance of shifting away from animal foods and towards plant-based vegan food systems. |