It’s Day 6 of our World Vegan Month food justice project, and we are in Mexico where our campaign manager Jessica Gonzalez Castro, in partnership with Casa Animal Morelia and Traficando amor y robando sonrisas, is visiting two communities in Michoacán in the west of the country.
Abandoned Communities
La Isla de Tzirio and Isla de las Rosas are among the most remote communities in the municipality, and both have suffered an abrupt halt to their economic activities since the pandemic began. With public transport having also stopped due to less activity, the communities there feel more abandoned than ever.
Working Together for a Safer World
The local organization, “Traficando amor y robando sonrisas” (‘Trafficking Love and Stealing Smiles’) has been able to offer support through intermittent deliveries of food and clothing, and so we are delighted to be working with them to share 500 plant-based Pozoles (a stew) with Pan de Muerto (“bread of the dead”).
The “Pozole Festival” takes place each November in this region, where the traditional stew is usually prepared with pig meat, lamb meat, shrimp, chicken and frog meat. But the intensive farming of pigs and chickens is associated with a significant pandemic risk, and has already allowed serious viruses to mutate and pass to people, including the deadly H5N1 virus. Eating plant-based foods is safer for us all.
Working Together for a Safer Future
Climate breakdown is one of the most serious threats we face, and animal farming, including shrimp farming, has a profoundly negative impact on climate. Emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane from animal agriculture all contribute disproportionately to climate change, with researchers finding that almost every animal-based food is worse for the planet than almost every plant-based food.
Maintaining Traditions
Today, we aim to show that we need not give up any of our traditions and important cultural dates and festivals when we choose to eat plant-based. And when we make small positive adaptations to what we eat, we are making choices that are safer for ourselves, for our family, for our community and for the rest of the world.
