World Meat Free Week
From tofu scrambles to veggie burgers, it's time to embrace your inner herbivore and give those taste buds a party with plant-based delights!
Some people enjoy meat greatly, and some don’t care for it too much and therefore it little to none. Some people make the decision to not eat meat at all because they love animals, and some people do it for health reasons. Even if you are an omnivore who eats meat on an everyday basis and could never imagine a life without eating meat, this day is the perfect chance to take a break from your habits and try something new.
You will probably not become a vegetarian after eating vegetarian for just one day, but that’s hardly the point of this day–millions of people celebrating World Meat Free Week together could have an enormously positive impact on our Planet. Plus, you may well discover some interesting vegetarian dishes you had no idea existed before and incorporate them into your normal diet. Basically, it’s a win-win situation!
The History of World Meat Free Week
Meat-free days have been a part of many traditions and religions over the millennia. In Catholicism and Anglicanism, for example, believers are told they should avoid eating meat on Fridays, using this small act of deprivation to honor Jesus Christ, who they believe died for their sins on that day. In fact, in the past English law stated that butchers and grocers were prohibited from slaughtering animals or selling meat on the weekly ‘fish days,’ which were Friday and Saturday. Meatless days have also been created during times of war or other hardship due to the general shortage of foodstuffs, as a way of making what little meat there was last a little longer–the “Meatless Tuesdays” created in Canada during World War II are a good example of this, as were the meat-free days created in the People’s Republic of Poland in the eighties.
Today, the reasons for creating meat-free days are quite different, with the main reason being reduction of anthropogenic climate change and the improvement of human health and animal welfare. So far, meat-free days have been endorsed by the city councils of various cities in countries around the globe, including Belgium, Brazil, Germany, South Africa and the U.S.A. The City of Los Angeles has declared all Mondays to be “Meatless Mondays”. Schoolchildren in numerous private and public schools are served vegetarian dishes and adults are encouraged to eat vegetarian as well as a way of washing away the unhealthy choices presumably made on the weekend with a healthy start to the week.
How to Celebrate World Meat Free Week
The folks who created World Meat Free Week give us many reasons why we should take part in celebrating this day. For example, they have calculated that if just 10 million of the world’s 7 billion people decided to abstain from meat for just this one day, we would reduce water usage by 13 million tonnes (the equivalent of 5,000 Olympic swimming pools), and save up to 5,700 acres of land (the equivalent of 89,000 tennis courts). And that’s not all–we could reduce our saturated fat intake, consume
It’s just one day, so why not try it? There are definitely plenty of delicious vegetarian dishes every person reading this would enjoy, so why not choose one or two and spend some time preparing them? Join the creators of World Meat Free Week and help make the world a better place!
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