The Washington Post prints “Local Extra” sections every Thursday, and today’s Montgomery County (Maryland) Extra features letters from local eighth graders. The closing letter touts the benefits of vegetarianism, attributes specific dollar amounts to increased medical costs for meat-eaters, cites statistics purporting to be from the Surgeon General, and credits all of this data to Dr. Neal Barnard. Barnard runs the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), the most vocal “meat will kill you” nanny group. Now, we would never question the right of anyone to parrot back Barnard’s brand of junk science in print. When a middle-school student does it, however, it makes us wonder just how PCRM is reaching the children.
