UN INT Intro Text w/ Responsive Image - *Important Note* You must UNLINK this shared library component before making page-specific customizations.
Everyone should have access to nutritious foods, but it’s tough for those living in food deserts to eat healthfully.
The Maryland government spends millions of tax dollars each year subsidizing the unhealthy meat, egg, and dairy industries. In 2020, for example, the state gave $10 million to chicken farmers, when that money could have gone toward making healthy foods available in food deserts. In Baltimore alone, roughly 20% of people live in food deserts.
Leading health experts agree that eating vegan is one of the best things that we can do to promote our own well-being and that of our families. Decades of scientific studies have repeatedly proved that choosing vegetables, grains, beans, fruits, nuts, and other plant-based foods over meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy helps support a lifetime of good health. Eating vegan decreases blood pressure, eliminates cholesterol intake, and helps provide protection against numerous diseases and conditions or slows the progression of their symptoms, including some of our country’s leading causes of death: heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and strokes.
Eating vegan also helps reduce the number of animals who suffer terribly on farms and in slaughterhouses.
Join PETA in advocating for food justice. If you live in Maryland, please urge your state legislators to redirect funds that support the meat, egg, and dairy industries to provide grocers in food deserts with incentives to stock vegetables, fruits, and other healthy, humane vegan foods.