Today is MeatOut Day. And, Maryland Governor Wes Moore's proclamation is getting some heat from poultry growers on the Eastern Shore. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has the story.
RUSH: It's "MeatOut" in Maryland. Governor Wes Moore issued a proclamation to promote plant-based diets, personal health and fair treatment of animals, but it has not said well with state rural interests. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has this report.
DIAZ: The Farm Animal Rights Movement is a national nonprofit that has been advocating for animal rights, veganism, and sustainability since 1976. Since 1985, the group has been promoting the first day of spring each year as MeatOut Day, a time to focus on the benefits of plant-based diets. This year, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed on with a proclamation encouraging people to "leave animals off your plate for one day and discover how plant-based foods can improve personal health, protect the planet, and spare animals from suffering." Well, the state's farming community and a few political leaders on the rural Eastern shore have plenty to say about that. The Maryland Farm Bureau put out a statement calling for the governor to support not disparage the state's livestock and poultry industries. The Delmarva Chicken Association also weighed in.
PORTER: As the Delmarva Chicken Association and the representatives of our chicken community and the nearly 1400 members, we were disappointed by the Governor's proclamation.
DIAZ: That's Holly Porter, executive director of the Delmarva Chicken Association. Maryland's 5.4 billion [dollar] chicken industry, the state's largest agricultural sector, includes more than 500 chicken growers and nearly 6,000 employees.
PORTER: Everybody has the choice as to how they would like to eat. We just want to remind folks that chicken is locally raised, locally fed, locally harvested here in Maryland and on Delmarva, and it's a great source of protein and it's nutritious.
DIAZ: While the governor might've intended the proclamation merely as an endorsement of healthy eating, Porter and some others see it as an attack on their industry as a whole.
PORTER: We were disappointed because we recognize that this is an initiative that's being pushed by a group that unfortunately would like to see animal agriculture as we know it end.
DIAZ: It's not just producers who are unhappy. In Cambridge, locals go to the meat counter at the Simmons Center market for local chicken, beef, and pork. The market has been in Ricky Travers family since 1937.
TRAVERS: When I heard that yesterday, I was floored.
DIAZ: That's owner Ricky Travers.
TRAVERS: He needs to remember just exactly how much meat is raised in the state of Maryland. We here at Center Market buy local cattle. We try to get local chicken when we can. We try to get local pork when we can. I mean, if somebody wants to eat that type of food, that's fine, but why in the world would you spend time coming out to say a statewide no beef day? That's ridiculous.
DIAZ: Travers, a longtime Democrat, understands that the governor's MeatOut proclamation is merely symbolic, but he laments what he sees as the ham-fisted messaging of Democrats in rural America.
TRAVERS: Very frustrating, very frustrating. Absolutely.
DIAZ: Republican politicians sensing blood have not missed a beat. Trump Administration Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Eastern Shore Congressman Andy Harris immediately jumped on the proclamation. So have others. Here was lower shore Republican State Senator Mary Beth Carozza on WBOC.
CAROZZA: And it really doesn't recognize the contributions of our farm families.
DIAZ: The governor has not been deaf to the blowback. In a subsequent press statement this week, Moore's office said he "unabashedly" supports Maryland farmers... believes in a well-balanced diet of meat and vegetables, and will himself be enjoying a beef burger today. As for Ricky Travers at Simmons Center Market:
TRAVERS: I think we're going to run a big meat sale here at the store on Friday.
DIAZ: For Delmarva Public Media, This is Kevin Diaz.
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