Group Explains to Leader of First Green-Certified Synagogue in the U.S. That One of the Best Ways to Go "Green" Is to Go Vegan
For Immediate Release:
April 21, 2011
Contact:
Kristin Richards 202-483-7382
San Luis Obispo, Calif. -- Today, PETA sent an urgent letter to Rabbi Scott Corngold of Congregation Beth David in San Luis Obispo with an offer: PETA will make a donation to the temple, which is facing foreclosure, if the rabbi agrees to display PETA's "Meat's Not Green" poster in the temple's Hebrew school classrooms. Beth David was the first synagogue in the country to earn the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. In the letter, PETA points out that raising animals for food is a leading cause of greenhouse-gas emissions, water pollution, and land degradation and consumes vast quantities of energy and resources. PETA also reminds Rabbi Corngold that animals killed for meat, including meat that is certified kosher, are subjected to daily abuse on factory farms and terrifying and agonizing deaths in slaughterhouses—an egregious violation of Jewish principles.
"The meat and dairy industries are as toxic for the environment as they are destructive to our health and to animals' well-being," says PETA senior researcher Philip Schein, who is Jewish and vegan. "Experts agree that one of the best ways to go 'green' is to go vegan."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA's letter to Rabbi Scott Corngold of Congregation Beth David follows.
April 21, 2011
Rabbi Scott Corngold
Congregation Beth David
Dear Rabbi Corngold:
On behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 2 million members and supporters, I'd like to offer Congregation Beth David a creative way to help with its current financial troubles while promoting the principle of tikkun olam (repairing the world). As the first green-certified synagogue in the country, the Beth David community may be aware that meat consumption wreaks havoc on the environment. In exchange for a donation toward the fund to save your synagogue, will Congregation Beth David agree to place PETA's "Meat's Not Green" posters in your religious school?
Please consider the following:
- Animal products are inherently inefficient to produce. It takes enormous amounts of grain and water to produce a single serving of meat.
- The U.N. has stated that a global shift toward a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change and that animal agriculture is "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."
- Researchers at the University of Chicago determined that switching to a vegan diet (no meat, eggs, or dairy products) is 50 percent more effective in countering climate change than switching from a standard American car to a hybrid.
In addition, a plant-based diet follows the principle of tsa'ar ba'alei chayim (compassion for animals). Several PETA undercover investigations have revealed egregious cruelty to animals during kosher slaughter. At Agriprocessors, formerly the world's largest kosher slaughterhouse, the investigator found that conscious cattle had their tracheas and esophagi ripped from their throats and that chickens suffered broken legs and wings as a result of rough handling and malfunctioning equipment. At the Frigorifico Las Piedras slaughterhouse in Uruguay (the leading exporter of kosher meat to the U.S. and Israel), workers wrestled cattle to the ground, cut their throats, and then hoisted the still conscious cattle upside down by one leg to slowly bleed to death. I'm sending you separately a copy of PETA's eye-opening video "If This Is Kosher…," narrated by National Jewish Book Award winner Jonathan Safran Foer.
I hope to hear that Congregation Beth David will accept our offer to place "Meat's Not Green" posters in your building in order to promote an eco-friendly and compassionate vegan diet. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Tracy Reiman
Executive Vice President
P.S. You might want to try some of these delicious vegan Passover recipes!