World Health Summit endorses Meatless Mondays

THE World Health Summit 2016, scheduled from October 9-11 in Berlin, Germany, is the premier international platform for exploring strategic developments and decisions in the area of healthcare. Held under the high patronage of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, it is attended by thought leaders and decision makers from academia, the industry, government, and civil society.

On October 10, they dine on a meatless menu to signify their endorsement of the Meatless Monday initiative, which fits the summit’s session on “Planetary Health” that will explore the long-term health implications of changes in the environment caused for example through their effects on food and agriculture.

Meatless Monday is a nonprofit public health initiative founded by Sid Lerner, chairman of The Monday Campaigns, and in association with the Lerner Centers for Public Health Promotion at Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Syracuse universities.

Michael J. Klag, dean of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and 2012 WHS president said, “Meatless Monday is an important public health campaign that has been advised by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future since 2003. The campaign’s encouragement of going meat-free one day per week is a practical and simple step toward improving individual and public health globally. Recognizing Meatless Monday at the World Health Summit aligns with our mission at the Bloomberg School to strengthen public health practice infrastructure worldwide.”