Alec Baldwin’S Beef With World Bank Over $200 Million Loan To China
For Immediate Release:
December 20, 1999
Contact:
Joey Penello 757-622-7382
Los Angeles — In an eleventh-hour plea, PETA member Alec Baldwin has asked the World Bank to kill a proposed $200 million loan that would be used to fund a cattle ranching pilot program in China.
“The cruelty involved in raising and slaughtering animals for food has been well documented,” Baldwin writes in a letter faxed today to James Wolfensohn, the president of the World Bank. “Additionally, cattle farming is an environmental nightmare, likely to make past World Bank projects that took flak from environmentalists seem minor by comparison.”
Calling the cattle project “irresponsible,” Baldwin’s letter also notes the many risks beef consumption poses to human health.
On Tuesday, Wolfensohn and members of the World Bank board will review the loan for approval at a meeting in Washington, D.C.
Baldwin hopes the World Bank will “encourage recipients of foreign aid to develop sustainable, humane, plant-based agriculture instead of promoting a violent industry that destroys soil, pollutes water, and kills both humans and animals.”
Baldwin’s letter to the World Bank follows.