School meals are almost always based on animal products. The
United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization 2006 report
“Livestock’s Long Shadow” states that raising animals for food
causes more global warming than all transportation combined,
causing 18% of all global warming. The newest report on global
warming and animal product consumption by the World Bank,
Livestock and Climate Change: What if the Key Actors in Climate
Change Are… Cows, Pigs, and Chickens? released in November 2009,
states that previous figures were severely underestimated and
that the production of animals and their products for food
contributes to a whooping 51% of global warming. A plant based
diet has the smallest environmental footprint. Meanwhile, a new
analysis of previous research on cancer and diet states “Most of
our foods should come from plant sources” since 35% of cancer
deaths are caused by diet, and we know from peer reviewed
medical research published in major medical journals that heart
disease and type 2 diabetes ca