Sir Paul McCartney along with other celebrities ranging from Sheryl Crow to Chris Martin are all currently backing ‘Meat Free Mondays’. As well as reducing animal slaughter, the hope is to slow global warming. Can such a small thing make such a difference to the rest of the world? ‘Meat Free Monday’s’ are seen as the ‘most attractive’ way for individuals to reduce their carbon emissions. We’ve all talked about other ways of reducing our carbon footprints in terms of food and drink, such as people buying local produce to help local traders and reduce costs and emissions of importing food, but maybe by simply adjusting our diets for one day a week, we can make a real difference, McCartney seems to think so.
After all, he got the idea from Belgium, so perhaps to work with different cultures, individual supermarkets in countries can themselves promote this one day a week idea. Fish in Japan or stopping exporting wine from Italy as examples. One day a week, each country has a something free monday.
Another quick point that can be raised from this as well is the role of celebrities for initiatives like this. If your favourite celebrity was promoting something, would you all of sudden develop a passion for it, or would you just ignore it? Do celebrities have the right to preach about problems or should they just be treated as everyday people who want to make the world a better place? Animal Aid features Meat Free Mondays here.
