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Reason Burger King 100% Vegetarian?

Nutritionist and group president of animal rights asks in a letter to the entrepreneur Jorge Paulo Lemann, who earlier this month scooped the net Burger King, to adopt a menu 100% vegetarian throughout the fast-food chain. The rationale for the proposal is based in the environmental preservation, the promotion of human health and respect for animal rights.

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Sao Paulo, 08 September 2010.

Prezado Sr. Jorge Paulo Lemann,

You do not know me and, I was responsible for a simple business activity, a quiet activity and nutrition office chair NGO, I am far from qualified to offer advice on how you should conduct your business. However, to learn of the recent acquisition of the Burger King by 3G Capital felt compelled to make a proposal that is sufficiently unusual to be up to the boldness that always marked his successful career as an entrepreneur.

The planetary moment that lives our society has created space for initiatives that would be unthinkable to succeed there 10 or 15 years ago. I refer to initiatives that are guided by changing habits aimed at the sustainability of the health of people and the planet, initiatives that make the encounter between the need for this historic moment and the desires of the population who are already aware and willing to change their habits. In this sense, a large network of fast-food has all the elements and symbolism necessary to effect a change of global reach can generate impacts from production systems to consumption, from the way people think your nutrition to your reflection in the individual and collective health. Communication mechanisms that need to be made effective for this type of development are those that speak to the masses and disseminated information can be one that stimulates both a habit as the other, that reinforces a habit already established or to propose a new practice, In many cases a practice that, though new, find immediate resonance among consumers, but since this new proposal is aligned with the expectations that were already being formed, even though they had not been expressed.

We believe we can agree that, worldwide, there is a powerful desire for change in the impact that our society is having on the climate, or a yearning for change in the health status of the population and, as there has always been throughout the history of mankind, a yearning for a more just and morally developed. I have no doubt that, addition to the potential financial, you can also see the responsibility and transformative potential that this new acquisition, to lay their hands on the direction of 12.150 lojas da reason Burger King em 76 countries around the world, has the effects on public health and environmental.

That is why I come to propose that you consider turning the network into a Burger King fast-food vegetarian, which implies that they are not served any animal products at all cafeterias network. Before you decide to stop reading this letter to this point, I want to clarify that the rationale for this suggestion is in full agreement with what was previously proposed: adopting a conduct that is healthy for the environment and for people, besides also be aligned to the moral evolution of human society overall.

Moreover, the very United Nations (UN) has said on more than one occasion in their reports that the adoption of a diet based on plant foods is the most powerful strategy you can adopt to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, justifying that raising animals for consumption is the economic activity that causes more environmental damage (accountable for 18% emissions), losing even for the transport sector (accountable for 15% emissions), and in general the latter is mistakenly seen as the main villain. Besides its effect on global warming, there are other environmental consequences for the production of food of animal origin. Estimates are, eg, that to produce a pound of hamburger are needed 10.000 (dez mil) liters of water and 16 (sixteen) kilograms of grain, while to produce a pound of hamburger vegetable are needed only 1.400 (one thousand four) liters of water and an equivalent amount of grain, in other words, only one pound. To better illustrate the issue of water, a single hamburger uses the equivalent of a person taking a bath would spend daily for six weeks short. Multiply that by the number of burgers served daily in 12.150 Burger King chain stores and draw conclusions about the power of environmental preservation lies in your hands right now. Note that using napkins made from recycled paper and separate trash for recycling has a negligible effect compared to the effect of removing the menu all products of animal origin. It is fair to say that no one better than a Brazilian entrepreneur to implement an initiative that size would have a positive impact on the environment, since it is precisely the Brazilian territory suffers most from environmental degradation caused by livestock since it is outrageous expansion of this activity in the Amazon area, either for cattle or soy production to be exported to serve as feed for livestock feed abroad.

Regarding human health, already become common knowledge the fact that a diet based on foods of animal origin is the cause of most diseases affecting the health of the world population, especially when the topic is the chronic and degenerative diseases (infarct, spillover, Hypertension, diabetes, obesity and some forms of cancer). On the other hand, a diet based on plant foods not only shows itself capable of nurturing people safely and abundance, but also proves to be effective in reversing the effects of diseases caused by a diet based on animal products. Plant foods have this power precisely because they are naturally high in fiber, low in saturated fat and free of cholesterol, besides being very rich in color, aromas and textures.

Not, I am not proposing that Burger King becomes a fast food chain that serves only salads. Far from it! When I refer to a diet based on plant foods, I am referring, among other things, to hambúrgueres (of lentilha, Soy, Grain chickpeas, of beterraba, etc.), the roots fried or roasted (potato, cassava, yam, carrot, etc.), a variety of mountings and desserts prepared without any ingredient of animal origin (and therefore no cholesterol) and a multitude of preparations that would be impossible to list here and you can compose a menu with excellence standard such as Burger King without losing the taste, nutrition or as. Really, which happens to make the move to a menu based on plant foods (therefore free of cholesterol and, low in saturated fat and very rich in fiber and other protective substances) is a gain in these three aspects: flavor, nutrition and quality. It is the presence of great vegetarian restaurants around the world, with varied culinary styles that make up the versatility to meet the reality of any public or world region. Although vegetarian restaurants are gifts to thousands around the globe, there is a global network, perhaps precisely for missing an investor with the audacity required to do so. Thence, face to insistir, there is someone better than you to effect a change would be historic and courageous as the transformation of a fast-food vegetarian in a network.

In what concerns the moral evolution of society, is increasing awareness of ethics in food and in other ways we relate to animals with whom we share this planet. At the heart of this evolution is the moral understanding that animals are sentient beings, endowed with the capacity to feel pain, pleasure, fear and joy, beings who care for your life and want to live it freely, full extensive e. This understanding comes a few leaving the circle of those who fight for animal rights and has increasingly integrated the perception of ordinary people, even those that, perhaps precisely because they lack options or comfort food services, still maintain the habit of consuming animal parts. The ease of a fast-food 100% vegetarian would meet the need of this growing portion of the population and would certainly serve as a stimulus for many others to do the choice of feeding not only with health and environmental sustainability, but also with compassion. Again, at this moment, the fate of millions of animals are in your hands.

Given the global demand for products and services that meet the aspirations of a growing portion of the population becomes increasingly aware of the impacts of their consumption habits on the planet and on your health, initiatives on a global scale that place the act of eating in alignment with these aspects will come without delay. If not now, will soon emerge within a few years an initiative like this. If my proposal sounds too audacious for the business in question, I must say that, particularly, I do not see as being in his nature to wait until you get another entrepreneur precedes most audacious initiatives for which the appropriate time already on the horizon.

I stand ready to collaborate with more information and the way it deems most appropriate in order to transform the network in the first Burger King fast-food vegetarian planet, this initiative that readily highlight your company competition by showing aligned with the growing demand for environmental preservation and foods, plus tasty, are also factors for the promotion of health and well-being of all species.

Graciously,