Are "Meatless Mondays" Going Global?

Perhaps it might be a bit of an exaggeration to say that "Meatless Mondays" (or Wednesdays or Thursdays or whatever) are becoming a worldwide phenomenen, but the concept is catching on!

Restaurants in Israel recently started promoting "Vegetarian Mondays" to help combat global warming and the Belgium city of Ghent urges citizens to go meatless on Thursday, also to help halt climate change. Paul McCartney is promoting the concept in the United Kingdom and Australia and The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health sponsors “Meatless Mondays” in America, largely for health reasons.  

It's a pretty good start!  I wrote a Care2 blog about it if you want some more details. It's at http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/are-meatless-mondays-going-global/.

Please check it out and vote in the poll if you have a second. Someone added a comment to tell me about a global "Meatless Mondays" petition that is being circulated for various countries.

In case you also hadn't heard about it before, the Global Meat Free Day Coordinating Team is hosting petitions for every major region, so you can just click on the country you live in and sign the appropriate petition. The list is at  http://www.meatfreepetition.com/.

I figured my vegetarian friends on PNN might be interested in signing, but I hope everyone else will sign it too--you don't have to make a big commitment, it's just one day a week. (And you don't really have to adhere to an "official" day. Just pick whichever day is convenient for you).

As I noted in my Care2 blog (and have probably mentioned on PNN too), the Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook states that “refusing meat” is the "single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.”

With "Cash for Clunkers" in the news all the time lately, I think it's a good thing to keep in mind!