Dear Vice President Kamala Harris:

We are a coalition of evidence-based nutrition, medical science, public health, social justice and anti-hunger organizations. We are entirely female-led, including several women of color and we respectfully urge you to implement the most effective and decisive strategy to battle the coronavirus pandemic and also prevent future pandemics.

In our Open Letter to the Biden-Harris administration, Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry and the Members of the COVID-19 Advisory Committee, we believe an effective pandemic response must include:

(1) De-industrializing animal production and consumption

A phase-wise plan to close animal factory farms, ban live animal markets, shut down fur farms and exit the wildlife trade; support Cory Booker’s and Elizabeth Warren’s Factory Farm Bill (S.3221 - Farm System Reform Act of 2019); and support the Petition for Rulemaking to shut down U.S. Live Animal Markets filed with Jerome Adams, MD, MPH, the US. Surgeon General by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

(2) Employing the best scientific tools for medical research (organ-on-a-chip method based on human biology as opposed to animal testing for fast, effective vaccine research and testing)

(3) Issuing urgent Pandemic Nutrition Guidance in favor of a "whole food plant-based" nutrition approach. Currently, 1 in 3 Americans, majority of them persons of color, live in at-risk and distressed ZIP codes, often in a food desert, with very low access to fresh produce. That's approximately 110 million Americans.  

Kamala, you are a role model for millions of people, especially women and women of color. Your position on healthy eating is one of the most powerful ways you can drive a fundamental transformation in the way America produces, processes and eats food. It also has the potential to solve  what some economists are now calling a gender-based ‘pink collar recession’

A U.N. Report has found that the Covid-19 crisis could set back a generation of women. Unemployment in the pandemic has fallen disproportionately on LatinX women, with many in the service industry.

Since March 2020, 57% LatinX women and 53% Black women say they've lost income, according to the National Women's Law Center in Washington D.C. More than 1 in 6 Black and LatinX women reported not having enough food in the past week.

Gender, race, and occupation help determine who is most vulnerable in the worst economic slump since the Great Depression.

Making America and its women, especially women of color, HEALTHY, HAPPY & HOPEFUL is going to depend on what we fuel ourselves with!

The problem comes down to our ailing food system, the obesity and chronic illness epidemic and an animal-based economy that continues to strip away our planetary health. The creation of a national food policy agency, as recommended by food policy leaders Ricardo Salvador and Olivier de Schutter, would directly link food production and consumption to public health and environmental protection. They suggested reconfiguring the USDA to become the U.S. Department of Food, Health and Wellbeing and appointing a National Food Policy Advisor to coordinate food policies across all government departments. 

You believe in home-cooking, have a herb garden, have helped your plant-based colleagues such as Senator Cory Booker with plant-powered culinary skills and you understand that the U.S. national nutrition guidance needs a desperate update, along with the country’s food system. 

Vice President Harris, you’re most of the way there already! We ask that you personally try a 100% whole foods plant-based approach to nutrition. Try it on for size by taking the Vegan Challenge by our coalition partner, Million Dollar Vegan in 2021!

Your leadership by modeling dietary change in your own life could influence millions of Americans to become healthier similar to what Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is doing, reversing type 2 diabetes with plants. 

Also, dear Vice President Harris - similar appeals to national leaders are being around the world.

In the U.K, Dr Laura Freeman and Dr Shireen Kassam of Plant Based Health Professionals (a JIVINITI Coalition partner) and co-founders of Plant Based Health Online, have launched a similar campaign, calling for the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to switch to a plant-based diet. As a result, this would encourage Britain to adopt a healthy diet – which will in turn improve human, public and planetary health. The JIVINITI Coalition is proud to support this campaign, calling for another world leader to address their diet to impact positive change. You can check out and sign the Plant Based Health Online’s petition here.”

Thank you for your tireless leadership, Madam Vice President. We graciously invite you to walk with us into a new consciousness for public health -- there's no better time than now. 

The JIVINITI Coalition

Nivi Jaswal - The Virsa Foundation | Victoria Moran - Main Street Vegan Academy | Aysha Akhtar - Center for Contemporary Sciences | Meryl Fury, Erin Sinnaeve - Plant Based Nutrition Movement | Katrina Fox - Vegan Women’s Leadership Network | Stephanie Redcross-West - Vegan Mainstream | Jasmine Leyva - The Invisible Vegan | P Angelicia Simmons - Fannie Lou Hamer Institute of Advocacy and Social Action | Jacque Salomon - Seeds to Inspire | Lianna Levine Reisner - Plant Powered Metro New York | Mallory Combemale - The Inheritance Project | Salina Shah - Ahimsa Consulting | Shireen Kassam, Rohini Bajekal - Plant Based Health Professionals UK | Nandita Shah, Reyna Rupani - SHARAN (India) | Madhavi Kolte, Julie Wayne - Jeeva Bhavana (India) | Wendy Sax – Documentary producer | Sabina Vyas – Public health professional | Prachi Jain - Escape To...by Fairkonnect | Naijha Wright-Brown - Black Vegetarian Society of Maryland and Land of Kush | Cindy Thompson - Trimazing Health & Lifestyle Coaching | Jane Velez-Mitchell - JaneUnChained News | Claire Smith - BeyondAnimal | Heather Mills - VBites | Juliet Gellatley - Viva! UK | Laura Lisa Hellwig - Viva! UK | Genesis Butler - Youth Climate Save | Kim Anderson - Plant City | Jackie Norman - VeganFTA | Eric Adams - Brooklyn Borough President | Radha Desikan Eswar - The Fractal Entrepreneurship Foundation | Dr. Achyuthan Eswar - Sampoorna Ahara | Jill & Jeffrey Dalton - The Whole Food Plant Based Cooking Show.