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Billie Eilish and Maggie Baird Take to Capitol Hill to Advocate for Plant-Based School Meals
Mother-daughter duo Eilish and Baird joined Representatives Velázquez and Bowman along with climate, racial and health justice groups for a briefing on the Healthy Future Students and Earth Act
Today, Grammy Award winning artist Billie Eilish and food justice and climate activist Maggie Baird spoke at a Capitol Hill briefing in support of the Healthy Future Students and Earth Act (H.R.4108). This bill, introduced in June 2021 by Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), would create a pilot grant program to help school districts overcome barriers to serving healthy, climate-friendly meals.
Whether for health, environmental, philosophical, religious, or other reasons, students and their families are increasingly asking for more plant-based options at school. Most schools, however, are struggling to meet that demand due in part to policy barriers that favor animal-based foods. By providing schools with the resources they need to serve healthy, plant-based meal options, the Healthy Future Students and Earth Act will help to alleviate food insecurity, improve health and educational outcomes for our children, and fight climate change.
"I'm proud to advocate for this legislation that will help to fight climate change, combat food insecurity, and promote health equity," said Billie Eilish, Grammy Award winning artist, songwriter, and activist.
"Providing nourishing, plant-based school meals is crucial to improving the health of our kids and protecting the planet that they will inherit from us," said Maggie Baird, founder of Support and Feed, a plant-based food justice organization. "With climate catastrophe looming and racial health disparities worsening, Congress must prioritize passing the Healthy Future Students and Earth Act."
Eilish and Baird are committed advocates for food justice and believe that everyone has a right to healthy, plant-based food. Eilish was the executive producer of the film, They Are Trying to Kill Us, about the intersections of food, disease, institutional racism, and poverty. Baird is the founder of Support and Feed, a non- profit that provides nourishing plant-based meals to people in need.
In addition to the bills' sponsors, Eilish and Baird, the panel of speakers at the briefing included:
- Genesis Butler, Founder of Youth Climate Save
- Tracye McQuirter, Best-selling Author and Public Health Nutritionist
- Eloisa Trinidad, Chapter President of Hip Hop Is Green and Executive Director of Chilis on Wheels
The briefing also featured a new video sharing why students across the country want more plant-based food options at school. The video was created by the coalition supporting the legislation.
"Every child deserves healthy, nutritious, and sustainable meals that respects their choice," said Representative Velazquez. "The Healthy Future Students and Earth Act will invest in the health of our children and help combat climate change by funding plant-based entrees in schools across the country. I'm proud to champion legislation that would deliver food justice for all and build a greener, healthier future for our kids."
"At the same time as we invest urgently in the transition to renewable energy, we must build sustainable food systems at every level of our society -- and our public education system can lead the way," said Representative Bowman. "I am proud to stand with Rep. Velazquez in introducing this bill, which would advance food justice in marginalized communities, support local farmers of color, and nourish all Americans while fighting the climate crisis."
"There is a huge rise in youth wanting to eat more plant-based options either for the animals, their health, the planet, or for all of these reasons," said Genesis Butler, the 15-year-old founder of Youth Climate Save. "Many are unable to do so though because they do not have access to plant-based meals. Since youth spend much of their time at school, it only makes sense for schools to provide plant-based meals. I urge everyone to support the Healthy Future Students and Earth Act because it will benefit us all."
"Black women experience the highest rates of chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer, but most of these illnesses can be prevented and often reversed by eating healthy plant-based foods. Ensuring our students have access to healthy, plant-based meals can help instill in them a lifetime of healthy eating habits that will mitigate the devastating impact these pre-existing conditions can have," said Tracye McQuirter, best-selling author of Ageless Vegan and By Any Greens Necessary and public health nutritionist.
"We must continue to right the historical wrongs of colonization which have led to great disparities in health, food security, and environmental justice, most of which is felt by Black, Indigenous, and students of the Global Majority," said Eloisa Trinidad, New York City Chapter President for Hip Hop is Green and Executive Director of Chilis on Wheels. "Any student going hungry throughout their school day because the food offered is either not culturally appropriate or doesn't meet their other needs is unacceptable. Providing proper sustenance through school food is one of the ways in which we can give every student an early chance to succeed. The Healthy Future Students and Earth Act starts to reimagine what empowering our students for a better future looks like."
"The Healthy Future Students and Earth Pilot Program Act presents a quadruple win for student choice, racial equity, student health, and the environment," said Chloe Waterman, senior program manager at Friends of the Earth U.S, who moderated the briefing panel. "We are grateful to Billie Eilish and Maggie Baird for using their platform to advocate for an equitable, plant-forward school meal program and to Representatives Bowman and Velazquez for their leadership on this important issue."
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-740081 Dead in Gaza in 24 Hours, Schools Targeted
"Why do they target us when we are innocent people?" said a Palestinian woman sheltering at a school attacked Tuesday. "We do not carry weapons but are just sitting and trying to find safety for ourselves and our children."
Israeli attacks have killed 81 Palestinians over roughly the last 24 hours, including an attack on a United Nations-run school shelter in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to data released by the Gaza health ministry on Wednesday.
The Nuseirat strike, which killed 23 Palestinians on Tuesday, was at least the eighth Israeli attack on a school shelter in the last ten days. Six of the schools had been run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
"Why do they target us when we are innocent people?" Umm Mohammed al-Hasanat, a woman who was sheltering at the Nuseirat school, askedAl Jazeera.
"We do not carry weapons but are just sitting and trying to find safety for ourselves and our children," she said.
A Palestinian mother struggles to bid farewell to her son, killed by the israelis in an air strike that targeted the Razi UNRWA school in Nuseirat pic.twitter.com/LbRsw6INhg
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) July 16, 2024
Palestinians inspect the Abdullah Azzam Mosque and its surroundings after the Israeli occupation bombed the area in Nuseirat camp, leaving massive piles of rubble behind. pic.twitter.com/rMEfRK1p5G
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) July 17, 2024
The Nuseirat attack was one of many in the last two days across the Gaza Strip.
A strike near Cairo School in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on Wednesday killed at least nine, including three children. An overnight strike on a house in Al-Zawyda in central Gaza killed eight, while an attack on a house Wednesday in the Khan Younis area killed five. An Israeli bombing also killed two in the al-Shakoush area northwest of Rafah on Wednesday. Israeli tanks also advanced into northern Rafah, Reutersreported.
The latest string of attacks included another on Tuesday in which Israeli forces killed about 17 in a strike on a "safe" zone in al-Mawasi, a coastal area west of Khan Younis where refugees have gathered.
Even before Tuesday, Gazans were facing one of the deadliest weeks since the war began. Israel bombarded the al-Mawasi camp on Saturday, killing more than 90 Palestinians. Israeli forces also killed at least 17 people on Sunday in an attack on the UNRWA-run Abu Oreiban school in Nuseirat, which was housing thousands of displaced people; most of the dead were women and children, according toAl Jazeera.
UNRWA announced last week that Israeli forces have targeted two-thirds of the schools it administers in Gaza and attacked its facilities 453 times overall since the start of the war. Nearly 200 UNRWA staff members have been killed, the U.N. agency said.
The agency reiterated its call for a stop to Israeli targeting of its facilities in a social media message on Tuesday: "Nowhere is safe. The blatant disregard for U.N. premises and humanitarian law must stop."
Nearly 70% of @UNRWA schools in #Gaza have been hit since the war began.
Over 95% of these schools were used as shelters when hit. 539 people sheltering in UNRWA facilities have been killed.
Nowhere is safe. The blatant disregard for @UN premises and humanitarian law must stop. pic.twitter.com/EKiSiOm2kc
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 16, 2024
News of the atrocities in Gaza came as Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday issued a 236-page report on the atrocities of October 7, in which Hamas-led armed groups killed roughly 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 250. The report's authors found that the groups had committed "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes" in their attack in southern Israel.
"Human Rights Watch research found that the Hamas-led assault on October 7 was designed to kill civilians and take as many people as possible hostage," Ida Sawyer, HRW's crisis and conflict director, said in a statement accompanying the report's release. "The October 7 atrocities should spur a global call to action for an end to all abuses against civilians in Israel and Palestine."
JD Vance Supports Tracking Abortion Seekers
"Donald Trump and J.D. Vance have a dark and dystopian vision for America's future, in which women are hunted across state lines for accessing basic healthcare," said one Democratic lawmaker.
As Republicans feted U.S. Sen. JD Vance Tuesday night at the GOP's national convention, welcoming the author and venture capitalist as presidential nominee Donald Trump's running mate, one of Vance's proposals for the future of abortion rights in the U.S. made national news.
Citing reporting from The Lever, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow warned viewers about Vance's endorsement of a request by at least 19 Republican attorneys general who asked the Biden administration to allow them access to the medical records of people who travel across state lines, including to states that allow abortion care.
"They want the right to follow women from their states all over the country to see if they might be getting an abortion somewhere. or might be getting any other kind of reproductive care anywhere that they want to bring criminal charges about, so they can use those records for prosecutions," said Maddow.
Last year, she added, Vance joined other GOP lawmakers in pressuring the Biden administration to withdraw a rule it introduced after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The rule prevents state and local police in states that ban abortion from using medical records to prosecute people who have obtained abortion care elsewhere.
"If Donald Trump and JD Vance are elected in November, they will have the power to withdraw the Biden administration's privacy rule on this issue," said Maddow.
Maddow's warning is "not overstated," said David Sirota, founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever.
As Common Dreamsreported Tuesday, despite recent attempts by the Republican Party and Trump to suggest their ultimate goal is not to prohibit abortion care nationwide, Trump's selection of Vance as his vice presidential nominee elevated a lawmaker who has endorsed a 15-week nationwide ban and has opposed any exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
Vance's support for rescinding President Joe Biden's medical privacy rule exemplifies the "dark and dystopian vision for America's future" that the senator and former president have, said New York state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-28).
"This aspect of the post-Dobbs world is often treated as hyperbole in mainstream news coverage, something that might be theoretically possible but not something that's actually going to happen," wrote Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo of the attack on medical privacy. "But Vance was one of only eight senators who thought [the Biden rule]... endangered 'valid state laws protecting life' and would 'limit cooperation with law enforcement.'"
"He's for real about this stuff," wrote Marshall, denouncing Vance as a "menstrual surveillance hawk."
Why Bernie Sanders Is Thanking Elon Musk
The Vermont senator said Musk has done "an exceptional job of demonstrating a point that we have made for years—and that is the fact we live in an oligarchic society."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday took the unusual step of applauding Elon Musk—but not for reasons that the Tesla CEO and world's richest man would likely find flattering.
In the wake of
reports indicating that Musk plans to inject $45 million per month into a new super PAC supporting former President Donald Trump's bid for another four years in the White House, Sanders (I-Vt.) thanked Musk for doing "an exceptional job of demonstrating a point that we have made for years—and that is the fact we live in an oligarchic society in which billionaires dominate not only our economic life and the information we consume, but our politics as well."
"And let me be clear. While the size of Musk's financial contribution is particularly egregious, he is not alone in attempting to buy this election to further his own needs," Sanders continued. "Other billionaires are also playing a significant role—in both political parties. Oh, I know... here goes Bernie Sanders again about Citizens United and the role of money in politics. I have no shortage of critics who accuse me of being boring and of hammering away at the same themes year after year after year."
"They're probably right. I am repetitious, but that’s because the problems we care about are only getting worse," he added. "Let's be clear. It has never made sense to me, then or now, that a tiny clique of people should have incredible wealth and power while most people have none."
"While people like Elon Musk try to buy elections for Donald Trump, people who work for low wages, have no health insurance, can't afford prescription drugs, and can't find affordable housing are giving up on politics."
Citing unnamed sources, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Musk has pledged to donate $45 million per month to America PAC, whose founding donors include ultra-rich tech investors who are part of Musk's social circle. The New York Timesseparately reported that "one leader of America PAC told a friend that the group expected to have a major donor who would make donations in four batches, adding up to as much as $160 million over the course of the campaign."
The Journal and Bloomberg stories—which Musk denied with a meme that included the words "fake gnus"—followed reports that Musk had already given the super PAC a substantial sum of money despite his March declaration that he is "not donating money to either candidate for U.S. president."
Musk formally endorsed Trump on X—the social media platform Musk owns—following an assassination attempt against the former president this past weekend in Pennsylvania. Conspiracy theories about the attempt on Trump's life proliferated rapidly on X, with the help of Musk himself.
The Tesla CEO's name
did not appear on America PAC's disclosure filings for June, which could mean that he donated to the PAC earlier this month.
Musk, who is worth over $250 billion, is one of more than a dozen billionaires supporting Trump and his newly chosen running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). Axios and the Times reported Tuesday that Musk personally lobbied Trump to make Vance his vice presidential pick.
Musk and other U.S. billionaires got $1 trillion richer during Trump's first four years in office, gains fueled by massive tax cuts he signed into law in 2017.
Why are billionaires like Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, Stephen Schwartzman, and the owner of this website rallying behind Trump?
Yes, the tax cuts. But there's more.
The more Trump tears down democracy, the safer the oligarchy becomes.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) July 16, 2024
Sanders wrote in his email Tuesday that Musk's influence on the 2024 election could be particularly pronounced given his ownership of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Musk, Sanders wrote, has used the platform "to amplify the voices of conspiracy theorists who deny the results of the last election and spread the dangerous idea that Democrats want to allow mass, undocumented migration to the country to replace, electorally, the votes of white people."
"The reality is that while people like Elon Musk try to buy elections for Donald Trump, people who work for low wages, have no health insurance, can't afford prescription drugs, and can't find affordable housing are giving up on politics," the senator continued. "They see the rich getting richer as they use their wealth to buy influence, and wonder whether anyone in Washington even knows what is going on in their lives."
Sanders argued that to end the pernicious political influence of Musk and other billionaires, it is essential to elect candidates who support overturning Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the 2010 Supreme Court decision that spawned the super PACs now playing a massive role in the nation's elections.
"It is an issue that should concern all Americans—regardless of their political point of view—who wish to live under a government that represents all of the people and not just a handful of powerful special interests," Sanders wrote. "Taking action is not just good politics, it is also good policy. Because the truth is, campaign finance reform is the most important issue facing us today, because it impacts all the others."