Black Leaf Vegan and PETA Team Up to Fight for Food Justice
For Immediate Release:
November 4, 2021
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
The fight against food deserts never tasted so good! On Saturday, local food truck Black Leaf Vegan and PETA are joining forces to give away free vegan burgers and bratwurst sandwiches along with bags filled with fresh produce and other vegan foods as part of PETA’s new food justice campaign, which calls on the government to redirect meat, egg, and dairy industry subsidies as incentives for grocers in low-income areas to stock fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy, humane vegan foods.
When: Saturday, November 6, 12 noon
Where: 40 E. Saint Clair St. (adjacent to the American Legion Mall to the south), Indianapolis
“Everyone deserves access to fresh, animal- and eco-friendly foods, no matter what zip code they live in,” says Derrick Slack of Black Leaf Vegan. “We can’t wait to treat people to delicious vegan burgers and bratwurst, which will improve health, stop animal suffering, and help the environment.”
Black Leaf Vegan owners Taria and Derrick Slack also sent a letter to Gov. Eric Holcomb, asking him to take urgent action to ensure that everyone in the state has access to fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthy vegan foods. Currently, the Indiana government spends millions of tax dollars each year subsidizing the unhealthy meat, egg, and dairy industries. In 2020, the state gave $38 million to just one dairy processing plant for property tax abatement, even as nearly 20% of Indianans are living in food deserts.
“Many families in food deserts have few grocery options beyond unhealthy processed meats and packaged snacks,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on local, state, and government agencies to stop propping up the cruel meat, egg, and dairy industries and redirect those funds to provide underserved communities with healthy vegan food.”
Stocking stores in food deserts with healthy vegan food would save animals’ lives; help vulnerable communities reduce their rates of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes; and help the environment, given that animal agriculture is responsible for nearly one-fifth of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions.
PETA launched the food justice campaign in Atlanta with Pinky Cole of Slutty Vegan and teamed up with Rev. Dr. Robert Turner and members of the Historic Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Additional events are planned for Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
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 or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
