Paul McCartney's wife Linda was an activist vegetarian. No doubt Paul's diet mirrored that of his dearly departed wife. To carry on her advocacy of vegetarianism Paul's brainchild is Meatless Monday's. No doubt others have laid claim to this idea but it was Paul's. The idea is to cut meat out of our diet for at least one day for the sake of our health and that of the planet. We are going to make the move in our student run-restaurants starting this fall to do our part. In fact, more schools around the United States are following suit, as well as famed restaurateur Mario Batali who has instituted Meatless Monday's for all his restaurants!
As someone who has read a litany of books and research articles that make it clear that raising, processing, and consuming livestock is having devastating effects on our planet albeit from the pollution from CAFO's, deforestation, global warming, E-Coli from tainted meat, human ailments attributed to eating red meat, and more. That is why it was easy for me to make the transition to Meatless Everydays to the point that there are now rare if any cravings for meat. Of course, my colleagues stop laughing or scowling when they learn that I have lost 25 pounds over the past year-and-a-half as a result of simply eating more fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and so forth and have never felt better. Indeed this morning's large glass of orange juice and fresh cut strawberries over a multi-grain waffle accompanied with a hot cup of Fair Trade green tea was a great way to start the day without bogging my system down with a grand slam!
To assist those of you on the same quest or contemplating the move the Humane Society of the United States or want to share with students some great recipes are found at:
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/eating/recipes/recipes.html
If you want to learn more about Meatless Monday's -- also with great news and recipes -- and inspire student's visit: http://www.meatlessmonday.com/
4 comments:
Mick,
I respect your commitment but you live in the mid-west. I live in south Louisiana. The thought of not being able to eat andouille, boudin, tasso, ponce, shrimp, crab oysters, fish...who would want to live like that? Of course, BP may have already taken half my choices away from me!
Randy C.
I bet you can give up meat of one day of the week for the cause :)
I love/loved those delicacies too but the times they are a changing.
Actually, I do! My wife is not a big meat eater. A couple of days per week we eat sans animal protein. Lately it's been easy. Creole tomatoes are unbelievable right now. I have 2 neighbors that grow them and they are very generous to us! Fresh green beans have been terrific as well!
R
Randy,
So how is your coast, more importantly the wetlands!? Living in MS for awhile I loved the beauty that is in the bayou's and marshes! Can't believe they still have no solution for the spill.
Well on the meat subject I have gone for a time trying different standards of eating from a fruitarian which was way fun and interesting to the common vegan. I think it boils down to eating in season and eating in control and one way to show that we are in control and not are stomachs is by the fast(giving something up) even if it is for a short time
Post a Comment