A Riddle and an Invitation

By Alice Christianson
Staff Writer

The riddle: What do one million Taiwanese, the cities of Ghent, Belgium, Signal Mountain, Tennessee, Chicago’s Health Commissioner, the Sierra Club and Dr. Ragendra Pachauri, head of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who shared the Nobel Peach Prize with Al Gore, have in common? They are strong voices urging the world’s population to reduce their carbon footprint, to be as “green” as possible in their diet by eliminating meat, fish and seafood. They also want people to be healthier.

While the one million Taiwanese signed a pledge to refrain from all meat for one year, others, like the Sierra Club are saying that if you can’t give up meat entirely, cut back to only a couple of meals a week, or go meatless one day a week. The city government of Ghent started a vegetarian movement on May 13, 2009, pronouncing Thursdays veggie days. They held a kickoff veg festival, handed out recipe booklets and requested that all restaurants either serve an identified vegetarian meal or take meat, fish and seafood off the menu completely on Thursdays. Last October, the town council of Signal Mountain, TN unanimously passed a healthy foods resolution to promote local foods, consumer-supported agriculture, community gardens, and healthy plant-based foods. Similar resolutions are pending in NYC and Alexandria, VA.

Sweden requires food labels that list the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for any food item’s production. A restaurant patron will have to decide on whether to order the high carbon foot print of beef from Brazil’s rain forest or the local veggie burger. There is growing consensus that we must pay attention to the individual choices we make regarding our diet. UK’s environmental expert, Lord Stern, predicts that one day “people will no longer see meat eating as a responsible or acceptable practice.”

The invitation: On March 20, join this year’s 25th anniversary of Meatout, the world’s oldest grassroots diet education program, by proclaiming Meatout Mondays. Each Monday, set aside all meat, fish, seafood products and eat only plant-based foods—grains, fruits and vegetables. Sign up on meatout.com and you will receive weekly e-mail recipes, health news and inspiration. Other sources of recipes include http://www.pcrm.org (21 days of recipes), http://www.vegan-food.net, http://www.vegsource.com, http://www.chooseveg.com, http://www.vegforlife.org, http://www.cok.net, and http://www.goveg.com.

You will find numerous food items in the produce and health food sections of area grocery stores and at Tochi Products. There are vegan bread selections at BreadSmith. Check out archived HPR vegan food reviews (fast food, local restaurants) if you don’t want to cook on a Monday. There is really no excuse to not take advantage of this invitation.

“Do this for yourself and for future generations so that they have a sustainable world in which to live. Think long term. Sustainability is not just about next year or next decade, but about generational time scales. Start by keeping the world of your great-grandchildren in mind.”-Alan AtKisson

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