Meat-Free Mondays

Paul McCartney recently proposed that we should all eat less meat - not because he wants to convert us all to vegetarianism, but because there are good arguments to support the opinion that meat production is a major contributor to climate change.

Although we would like to embrace Sir Paul's vision, we do not think we can enforce this on the community.   Nevertheless, we would like to think that the community is thinking about the issue, and that they will look at some of the resources below.

We are not seeking to convert everyone to vegetarianism.   We are not going to under-nourish people.   We are intending simply to suggest that eating less meat is one way in which we can promote a sustainable future, and to put it into practice one day a week.

If you would like to see more about this, please click on this powerpoint link.   The powerpoint is designed for presentation to an audience, so some links between slides may be unclear, but the gist of the argument should be evident.   Please note:  the slides do not deal with the health or humanitarian aspects of a meat-free diet, only the sustainability ones;  the slides contain information about fisheries as well.   (It is worth noting that the fish served in College is either line-caught or cheap cuts that would otherwise have been thrown away or used in fish-meal.)  Most of the information is drawn from 'Why it's green to go vegetarian', but although this is a booklet published by the vegetarian society, its sources are all listed in the back and are impartial ones.

If you click here you will find a shorter rationale for eating less meat.

This link may be of interest as well - a summary of a New Scientist article from 2007:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jul/19/climatechange.climatechange