Pamela Anderson Calls for Vegan Meals in Canadian Prisons

Vegan actress and activist Pamela Anderson recently penned a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging him to take meat and dairy off the country’s prison menus and replace them with vegan alternatives. Anderson explained that serving the country’s approximately 40,000 inmates vegan meals of beans, rice, lentils, pasta, vegetables, and fruit would provide all the essential nutrients they would need and would be a “simple but effective way to reduce costs and improve lives.” In her letter—which comes as part of her ongoing work with animal-rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—Anderson pointed to the potential cost savings of replacing meat and cheese with plants, as well as the country’s newly retooled Canada Food Guide, which puts more emphasis on plant-based proteins and completely removes the meat-and-dairy protein food groups. She also mentions the UN climate panel report calling for a dietary shift to help combat climate change. In 2016, Anderson sent a letter to Louisiana’s governor, asking him to implement vegan meals at the state’s 12 prisons in an effort to save taxpayer money and spare animal lives. That same year, the United States federal prison system began offering vegan meals to accommodate religious and dietary needs. In 2015, she promoted the country’s first meatless meal program at Arizona’s Maricopa County jail, which Anderson says reduced the jail’s costs by $272,000.