Video: York couple offer the Pope $1m to turn vegan

A York couple want the Pope to go vegan – and they’re offering him one million dollars if he does.

Matthew Glover and Jane Land, who began Veganuary, launched Million Dollar Vegan on Wednesday (February 6) – and have enlisted the support of celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney, Moby, Woody Harrelson and Mena Suvari.

Matthew said they were launching the campaign “to jolt our world leaders from complacency”, adding:

• For too long they’ve failed to act on evidence of the damage caused by animal agriculture; many have subsidised that very industry, but we cannot afford for them to remain silent.

  We’re thankful Pope Francis has spoken on these issues, which is why we’re asking him to try vegan for Lent, and set an example of how we can align our principles of compassion with our actions.
  

They are calling on the Pope to try vegan for Lent to ‘help fight climate change with diet change’. In return, Million Dollar Vegan (MDV) is offering $1 million to a charity of the Pope’s choice.

Cutting greenhouse gases

The MDV campaign says the problems caused by animal agriculture are “devastating”, including:

• causing a greater impact on global warming than the fuel emissions from the entire global transport sector
• being a leading driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss
• and causing suffering to billions of animals

Talking to Sky News today, Jane and Matthew, who live in Copmanthorpe, said:

• If everybody in the world went vegan for Lent, it’s the equivalent of Germany not emitting any CO2 for a year.

Broadcaster Piers Morgan responded that he would donate £772,000 (aka $1m) to “make all vegans shut up”.

On the first day the MDV campaign scored 85 newspaper articles and nine TV appearances across 15 countries.

And one appearance on YorkMix.

The $1m has been donated by the Blue Horizon International Foundation, the charitable arm of the Blue Horizon Corporation, which invests in companies producing plant-based foods.

MDV is encouraging everyone to try vegan for Lent – not just the Pope.