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News & Events for Health Empowerment // April 19, 2023
On Monday, the food news from New York City was all about climate: Mayor Eric Adams announced a commitment to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from food by 33% in the next 7 years. What’s the number one way to do this? Reduce the amount of meat served across city agencies like schools, hospitals, and prisons. And we’re already on the path to accomplishing this, thanks to the NYC Department of Education’s Plant-Powered Fridays (we like the name) and the plant-based default for in-patient hospital meals at 11 NYC Health + Hospitals facilities.
The meat industry is emissions-intensive for a number of reasons:
The billions of animals raised for meat require a huge amount of land, water, and feed (and those feed crops require even more land). It’s estimated that we use about 30% of the Earth’s land (roughly the size of Asia) for raising and feeding animals eaten by humans. And meat production requires energy-intensive fertilizers and pesticides.
Animals produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide, but it can also dissipate more quickly than carbon dioxide. This means that we have the potential to reduce GHGs much faster with food than with the transition to renewable energy.
We’ve known about the problem with meat and the environment for decades. Here’s an excerpt from a 20 year-old book (with 30 year-old data) that looks beyond just GHG emissions:
“Federal subsidies for livestock grazing are particularly odious in light of the horrendous ecological impact…. [Grazing] hastens soil erosion and alters the mix of both plants and animals that can survive in the ecosystem. Cattle like to linger by rivers and streams, which means that they destroy sensitive stream banks and deposit large quantities of wastes in the water…. Already 60% of [the U.S.] Bureau of Land Management rangelands are missing at least half of their native plants and grasses. Some 80% of streams and riparian ecosystems in arid regions of the West have been damaged by livestock grazing, according to the Interior Department in 1994.”
– David Bollier, Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth, 2003
Join us in making a real difference this Earth Week by replacing meat with hearty plants like beans or lentils. Find inspiration from our PPMNY in Your Kitchen app. Mike Rothenberg's Best Beet Burgers is perfect for beginners, or if you're looking for something more advanced, there's Chef Carole's Three-Bean Veggie Loaf or Daniel Shuman'sChili-Non-Carne.
Urban Meets Rural: An Earth Day Summit at Ethos Farm Sunday, April 23, 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM 177 West Mill Road, Long Valley NJ $25-80 adult tickets, $15 child tickets – register hereby Saturday Book your $25 round-trip bus ticket from Penn Station by the end of today
Experience where our food is grown in a unique encounter between urban and rural farmers! Our day-long outing to an idyllic 342-acre farm in central New Jersey includes learning and activities centered on food-as-medicine, regenerative organic farming, sustainable food policy, and mindfulness. Bring the whole family!
Presented in partnership with Ethos Primary Care, Farm to People, Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, and the Washington Heights/Inwood Food Council
Meet us at Caravan of Dreams, an East Village favorite that has been serving organic, vegan food for more than three decades. Dinner includes 3 shared appetizers, a salad, a glass of Sangria (non-alcoholic option available) as well as your choice of of entree and dessert chosen from a prix fixe menu. Hosted by Lynn Diamond, PPMNY’s Associate Network Director.
Comedy for a Cause: A Plant Powered Metro NY Benefit Tuesday, May 2, 7:00 PM VIP Hour, 8:00 PM Show –Hosted by Stand Up NY, 236 W 78th Street, New York, NY VIP Ticket: $85; General: $35 + $18 drink minimum –register here and use code: DTD5OFF for $5 off the service fee
Laughter is the best medicine… perhaps along with a plant-rich diet! Get ready for a night of comedy at Stand Up NY, where a portion of your ticket will be donated back to PPMNY. VIP tickets include access to an hour of socializing and plant-powered appetizers before the show, with two drinks included in the showroom and healthy mocktail options available.
Did you know that whole food, plant-based nutrition is also good for your skin? Join us virtually as Jessica Krant, MD, MPH, explores how gut health and skin health are deeply interconnected, and how a plant-based diet and a healthy lifestyle can slow the aging process.
If you’re new to tackling how to eat out with friends, or trying to manage cravings or any other hurdles, join our monthly circle to share stories and tips that will keep you on track. Led by Lori Pitkowsky, MSW, and Denise Bassin, PhD, PPMNY Community Support Facilitators.
With newly-announced featured guest, pediatrician Leigh Ettinger, MD, we’ll explore heart health in kids and its relationship to childhood obesity and kidney disease. Dr. Monica Aggarwal will join our show later this year.
Come find us at…
A Healthy Future in New York: Earth Day Fair Saturday, April 22, 9:00 - 11:00 AM Presented by Emblem Health, HANAC, and the Colombian Consulate of NY Para hispanohablantes // for Spanish speakers
PPMNY is collaborating with Jewish Veg this May to present our 21-Day Plant Powered Jumpstart for the Jewish community! Get over your digestive troubles from Passover and learn a new way to support your health and well-being. We extend our gratitude to the Ancowitz and Kanner families who sponsored this program in memory of Arthur Ancowitz, MD, a pioneer in disease prevention through diet and lifestyle.
Registration is open now through April 30th, and the program starts on May 3rd. Check out Jewish Veg’s website for more details. Sign up as an individual, or join as a group affiliated with a Jewish communal organization or synagogue. Questions? Reach out to jumpstart@ppmny.organd/or jodi@jewishveg.org.
In NYC, Black women are astoundingly eight times more likely than white women to die of pregnancy-related causes. According to a city report over a decade ago, Severe Maternal Morbidity — defined as life-threatening complications during delivery — is more common among women who are of African American or Afro-Caribbean descent and is correlated with neighborhood poverty, high BMI, Cesarean births, and the presence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. According to the report, “Women with any chronic condition (diabetes, heart disease or hypertension) were almost three times as likely to have SMM as women with none of these chronic conditions.”
Whole food, plant-based nutrition can stop and even reverse these top conditions that contribute to women’s death during childbirth. Over the next six weeks, Plant Powered Metro New York is offering support to moms (before, during, and after pregnancy), their partners, caregivers of young children, and obstetric health professionals (doulas, midwives, and OB clinicians) through FREEfour-week classes that blend motivational nutrition education with cooking instruction.
Sponsored by the Allen Foundation, and built from the award-winning Food for Life nutrition and cooking classes created by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, these classes will demonstrate how to prepare delicious plant-based meals that can prevent and treat gestational and type 2 diabetes, naturally reduce blood pressure, help you achieve or maintain a healthy weight, and feed children for a healthy start.
Choose from a virtual class in May, or join the remaining three sessions of an in-person class in East Harlem that started yesterday:
Food for Life: The Power of Food for New & Expecting Parents
Virtual: Wednesdays, May 3 - 24, 5:00 - 7:00 PM Register here
In-PersonSeries is Underway! 3 sessions left… Tuesdays, April 25, May 2 and 16, 3:00 - 5:00 PM East Harlem Neighborhood Health Action Center 158 East 115th Street, New York, NY
Would your organization like to host these same classes on-site? Thanks to grant funding, we can bring this program to you, virtually or in-person at NY metro area locations (NYC and surrounding counties). Contact Lynn Diamond, PPMNY Director of Community Education, for more information.
A 5K walk was no sweat for the 30+ people who joined us on Sunday in Central Park. We bonded over movement and stories of health, healing, and empowerment on a beautiful day.
This Sunday Chef Carole made five different sauces for whatever mood you’re in! Catch the replay and learn how to make a mushroom gravy, BBQ sauce, peanut sauce, cashew curry, and a chickpea-based “liquid gold.”
Aifra Ruiz and Rhotochia AtkinsJones led a demo with older adults at JASA's Williamsburg center, sharing tips on how to make more budget-friendly recipes. Participants tasted their quinoa salad and stuffed dates — a real crowd-pleaser!
We're teaming up with P-POD this fall at their national conference in Newark, investigating the evidence for preventing and treating major chronic diseases through nutrition and lifestyle changes. Offering affordable continuing education credit for healthcare professionals, and also open to the public, the conference will feature a keynote presentation by Michelle McMacken, MD, FACP, Executive Director of Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine at NYC Health + Hospitals, as well as sessions with local and national healthcare leaders and our own Lianna Levine Reisner, PPMNY Network Director.
Our mailing address: Plant Powered Metro New York, PO Box 20771, New York NY 10025
Plant Powered Metro New York empowers people to find better health and overcome chronic disease through whole food, plant-based nutrition. We offer evidence-based education, resources, and support to create community and inspire change throughout the New York metropolitan area.
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