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At Company’s Annual Meeting, Group Will Call for Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Label on Every Package of Meat
For Immediate Release:
January 26, 2009
Contact:
Matt Prescott 757-622-7382
Austin, Minn. — A representative of PETA, which owns 100 shares of stock in Hormel Foods–a major meat producer with $6.7 billion in sales–will present a statement in favor of PETA’s shareholder resolution at the company’s annual meeting in Austin on Tuesday. PETA is calling on Hormel to label all meat packages with information about the greenhouse-gas emissions “footprint” caused by the production of the company’s products. In its resolution, PETA points out that meat production is the leading cause of climate change and that some food companies have already begun labeling products with per-serving greenhouse-gas emissions information:
When: Tuesday, January 27, 8 p.m.
Where: Richard L. Knowlton Auditorium at Austin High School, 300 N.W. Fourth St., Austin
The following are just a few of the recent findings about meat’s devastating impact on the environment:
* U.N. scientists have determined that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, SUVs, trucks, and planes in the world combined.
* Researchers at the University of Chicago determined that switching to a vegan diet is more effective in countering climate change than switching from a standard car to a Toyota Prius.
* According to Environmental Defense, if every American substituted vegetarian foods for chicken at just one meal per week, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.
“If meat is on the menu, so is a hefty serving of greenhouse gases,” says PETA Senior Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Consumers have a right to know how much Hormel’s conversion of animals into meat is contributing to climate change.”
PETA’s statement is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.
