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Food

James Cameron-Backed School First In The Nation To Go All-Vegan

muse-school.jpg
Students at the garden (Photo via MUSE School CA's Facebook)

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Only in L.A. would an Academy Award-winning director support a private school that is planning on going on an all-vegan diet.

Suzy Amis Cameron, the wife of Titanic director James Cameron, founded the environmentally-conscious MUSE School CA in Calabasas with her sister in 2006. Amis Cameron started the school in Topanga Canyon but in 2010 bought a 22-acre Malibu Canyon property with her husband that would be home to the facility. The 140-student school, which enrolls students ages 2 to 12 and already has students growing their own fruits and veggies under the guidance of instructors, is planning to go meat- and dairy-free.

"We are gradually moving towards a plant-based menu because we do call ourselves an environmental school," Amis Cameron told NPR. "Within the next year and a half we will be plant-based."

MUSE School CA would the first school in the nation to go vegan. However, other schools have been moving towards more plant-based diets. There's a public school in Queens, New York that has gone all-vegetarian and the San Diego Unified School District has adopted a Meatless Mondays plan in its elementary schools, following suit after L.A. Unified School District did the same.

Amis Cameron's nonprofit school is going this route for health reasons and also to reduce their carbon footprint. MUSE School CA goes the extra mile when it comes to being an environmentally-driven school. Students at the zero-waste school reuse broken electronics and office supplies, and the buildings are salvaged from structures, according to the L.A. Times. The school's produce they grow already supplies 20 percent of the cafeteria food.

The couple both went vegan in 2012 after watching food documentary Forks Over Knives.

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