EDITORIAL
HOW TO REACH US
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.16 COM | JAN. 10-JAN. 16, 2020
READERS WRITE
The end-of-year/New Year
holidays seem to whiplash us
from one extreme to the other:
eat, drink & be merry vs. the
customary New Year’s resolutions:
reduce social media,
reduce weight, and embrace a
plant-based diet!
One-third of consumers already
report reducing their
consumption of animal foods.
Hundreds of school, college,
hospital, and corporate cafeterias
have embraced Meatless
Monday. Even fast-food chains
Chipotle, Denny’s, Panera, Subway,
Taco Bell, White Castle are
rolling out plant-based options.
A dozen start-ups, led by
Beyond Meat and Impossible
Foods, are creating healthy, ecofriendly,
compassionate, convenient,
delicious plant-based
meat and dairy alternatives.
Meat industry giants Tyson
Foods, Cargill, and Canada’s
Maple Leaf Foods have invested
heavily in plant-based meat development.
So have a number of
Microsoft, Google, Twitter, and
PayPal pioneers.
According to Plant-Based
Foods Association, plant-based
food sales have grown by 20 percent
in recent years, 10 times the
growth rate of all foods. Sales of
plant-based cheeses, creamers,
butter, yogurts, and ice creams
are exploding at a 50 percent
growth rate. Plant-based milks
now account for 15 percent of
the milk market.
The plant-based New Year’s
resolution requires no sweat or
deprivation - just some fun exploration
of your favorite supermarket,
restaurants, and food
websites.
Freddy Green
Flushing
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A healthy New Year’s resolution
As lawmakers stream back to Albany this week
for the start of the new legislative session,
they will be tasked with fixing New York’s
cash bail reform that was part of the criminal
justice law changes pushed by the Democratic majority
and signed into law.
Blow back from law and order Republicans and
many in law enforcement has been intense in the
week since the new law went into effect removing
detention and cash bail for nearly all misdemeanors
and non-violent felony cases such as stalking,
larceny and assault as a hate crime.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed the brewing
controversy Monday calling bail reforms a work
in progress.
“Bail reform is right. But changing the system
is complicated and then has a number of ramifications,”
Cuomo said. “There are other changes that
need to be made.”
Attorney General Letitia James said the new
bail laws should be revisited by lawmakers.
“Safety should be the first priority,” she said.
Social-justice advocates hailed the new bail reforms
and made the case that people facing criminal
charges would be released anyway if they
could afford to post bail and the old laws penalized
poor people who couldn’t post bail.
“The whole idea of the bail reform is that someone
should not be held in simply because they
can’t afford bail, and we all saw plenty of horrible
examples of that,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “Kalief
Browder is the worst example but there were
many.”
The controversy comes at a time where anti-
Semitic attacks have rocked the metropolitan
area including the machete attack on the Orthodox
community in Monsey in Rockland County. A
Brooklyn Assemblyman has proposed legislation
that would bring back cash bail for hate crimes.
State Senator Michael Gianaris, one of the chief
architects of the criminal justice reform laws, told
reporters he is open to discussing changes.
“Everyone is obviously concerned about the
severity of hate crimes and the outbreak of hate
crimes,” Gianaris said. “I expect that this conversation
will be one that unfolds over the next several
weeks, and we will do what’s appropriate to
keep everybody safe and to also keep the system
fair.”
We suggest amending the statute to reinstitute
judicial discretion to assess whether a person is
too dangerous to be released and, at the very least,
give judges more options when dealing with hate
crimes.
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