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PETA to Polar Cruises: Meaty Meals on Board Will Sink Your Ships
April 3, 2008

Bend, Oregon -- Today, PETA sent a letter to Chuck Cross, owner of Polar Cruises--a Bend-based business specializing in trips to Antarctica--urging him to institute a vegetarian-only buffet policy on the company's ships to help offset the cruise line's impact on the environment, which will doom the company and Antarctica's ice caps. PETA's letter comes on the heels of a report by National Public Radio (NPR) about an increase in the number of people interested in traveling to Antarctica before it disappears because of global warming. PETA's letter points out that adopting a vegetarian diet--which recent studies prove is the best way for people to lessen their ecological footprint--is also the best way to help protect business interests that depend on the survival of such fragile ecosystems.

"The biggest cause of global warming--the meat industry--is responsible for more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, SUVs, ships, and planes in the world combined," says PETA spokesperson Lindsay Rajt. "The meat industry is killing the planet and melting away Polar Cruises' meal ticket--a great reason for the company to adopt a vegetarian policy."

Contact:
Lindsay Rajt 757-622-7382

PETA's letter to Chuck Cross follows.
April 3, 2008

Chuck Cross
Polar Cruises

Dear Mr. Cross:

On behalf of PETA and our more than 1.8 million members and supporters, I am writing with a recommendation that will help protect your business. As reported by National Public Radio, an increasing number of people are interested in traveling to locations such as Antarctica that are at risk because of global warming. We urge you to institute a vegetarian meal policy for your cruise line to help offset your ships' impact on the environment and protect these destinations for future generations.

Please consider the following:

• A 2006 United Nations report determined that raising animals for food generates almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, SUVs, ships, and planes in the world combined. The report went on to say that the meat industry is "one of the ... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global" and recommends that the meat industry "be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."
• According to Environmental Defense, if every American substituted vegetarian food for one chicken meal per week, the carbon dioxide savings would be about the same as taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.
• The official handbook for Live Earth--the anti-global warming concerts that Al Gore helped organize--says that not eating meat is the "single most effective thing you can do" to reduce your climate change impact. (Emphasis in original.)

I strongly urge you to institute a vegetarian meal policy on your ships. By providing information to your guests about the devastating effects of meat production and serving exclusively vegetarian meals, you will help offset your cruise line's impact on climate change. In addition, because vegetarians are known to live longer and healthier lives than their meat-eating counterparts, you will help ensure that your customers will be around to give Polar Cruises repeat business.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you might have or for assistance in planning a vegetarian menu. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Lindsay Rajt
Assistant Manager
Factory Farming Campaigns

PETA

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Originally posted by PamM:
I think it may be better for them to take the half-million US cars off the roads first; it could save one or two chickens from being eaten with fewer delivery trucks about.

Pam

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Why did the chicken cross the road?

To prove to the racoon it could be done!