Will Virgin Atlantic Go Vegan to Counter ‘Flight-Shaming’?
For Immediate Release:
21 November 2019
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]
WILL VIRGIN ATLANTIC GO VEGAN TO COUNTER ‘ FLIGHT-SHAMING’?
PETA Urges Sir Richard Branson to Serve Only Vegan Meals on Board – for the Sake of the Planet and Animals
London – This morning, PETA sent Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson a letter offering him a foolproof way to offset some of the environmental damage caused by flying and counter “flight-shaming”: offering only eco- and animal-friendly vegan meals on all Virgin Atlantic flights.
“Virgin Atlantic has an opportunity to lead the way towards a more clean, more green, and entirely less mean future,” PETA Director of International Programmes Mimi Bekhechi wrote to Branson. “Serving only vegan food on Virgin Atlantic flights would let the world know you’re serious about tackling the biggest problem civilisation has ever faced. For our planet and all the sentient beings we share it with, this move can’t come soon enough.”
In the letter, PETA points out that the United Nations states that a global transition to vegan eating is urgently needed to combat the worst effects of the climate crisis. Animal agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (14% to 18% of total global emissions) than aviation (2%), is a major contributor to climate change, and causes deforestation, drought, desertification, species extinction, and the devastation of ecosystems on a massive scale. If everyone switched from consuming cows to eating soya, we could harvest the same amount of protein using 97% less land while also slashing global greenhouse-gas emissions.
In addition, each person who goes vegan spares the lives of nearly 200 animals per year and reduces his or her own risk of suffering from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.
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