Page 3282 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 21 August 2019
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… largely consists of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and unsaturated oils, includes a low to moderate amount of seafood and poultry, and includes no or a low quantity of red meat, processed meat, added sugar, refined grains and starchy vegetables.
They concluded that the global adoption of such a diet would provide major health benefits, including a large reduction in total mortality. For all of these reasons, I do not eat meat and I eat very little dairy and eggs. As I have mentioned, many Australians are making the same choice as I do. Positively, we are finding many more options. It is now a rare restaurant that has only rare steaks as an option. And that pun was intended! For those real meat lovers, there are now a range of fake meats based entirely on plants.
There will be benefits to overall human health, animal welfare and our environment by consuming more plant-based foods and less animal-based foods. After recognising that in the notes, my motion calls on the ACT government to support the shift to more plant-based foods through its operations and to support a shift more broadly in the ACT through a range of initiatives.
I should make it clear: I am not talking about compelling anyone to give up animal foods. I am advocating for making plant-based choices better available, adequately available, so that everyone who makes that choice can make the choice easily and so that people can try out that choice if they have not had the opportunity to try it out before.
I have looked at the things that the ACT government does. I asked a series of questions on notice about this a while ago. I did not get particularly useful answers. First, I am asking that Events ACT ensure that all events catered by the ACT government include plant-based food options in sufficient quantity to adequately cater for vegetarians and vegans.
I note that all people eat some plant-based foods when on offer. Quite often you go to an event and you find that, yes, there were some plant-based foods but they have already been eaten by the omnivores. I then find that there is nothing left to eat. There was just one lucky tray with some vegan food.
It would be really nice if we had some events which were purely plant-based. I did ask a question on notice about Events ACT catering policies and I got one of my favourite non-answers. I quote, “Events ACT ensures that there is a variety of foods.” I have to assume that that means that they make sure there is both tea and coffee at events.
Secondly, there is the supporting and encouraging of local cafes, restaurants and food retailers to supply low-carbon meals and plant-based meals. As plant-based food is becoming more popular, more places serve it. However, many food businesses do not really do plant-based food. They seem to think that fine dining means an expensive piece of protein on your dish, be it meat or fish.
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