The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit, has worked through 12,000 doctors and other health practitioners nationwide to emphasize prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity and cancer with plant-based diets. It also has worked 35 years to search for alternatives to the use of animals in medical education and research and for more effective scientific methods.
Its research views prompted criticism in the 1990s from the American Medical Association, although the committee’s leader, Dr. Neal Barnard, has said those disagreements with the AMA are in the past.
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The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is also known to have a relationship with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. But the Nebraska campaign is emphasizing plant-based eating, Nebraska members said.
The transition to plant-based protein is already underway, driven by consumer demand, the organization said, but this health-promoting trend needs the support and assistance of government. With incentives from the state, farmers could increase acreage of great northern beans, pinto beans and other profitable crops while decreasing livestock production, the group said.
Cody Stubbe, a surgical nurse and nursing instructor in Omaha and Lincoln for 18 years, is a Food for Life instructor. When she participated in open-heart surgeries, she learned that doctors could repair hearts with surgery but not prevent the need for them.
