By Tim Saunders on
Back in June, Paul McCartney launched Meat-Free Mondays, a food campaign to encourage the world to help slow climate change by reducing their meat consumption by having one meat free day a week. The iconic singer is now set to take his idea to the European Parliament in Brussels this week.
“The message that I am taking to the European Parliament is – less meat equals less heat,” said McCartney, who will address the Parliament on Thursday. “I will appeal to world leaders converging on Copenhagen for the climate-change talks to remember that sustainable food policy is an essential weapon in the fight against global warming. At the same time we should not forget our individual capacity to act in ways that will help – such as limiting our consumption of meat. This simple act can help slow global warming and help to feed the world.”
The Meat Free Monday campaign states that meat consumption has quadrupled since 1961, and poultry consumption has increased 10-fold. The UK’s Food Climate Research Network says that food production is responsible for between 20-30 percent of global green house gas emissions. The United Nations has supported the figures, saying that the livestock sector is ‘one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global’.
“There is growing support for eating less meat so as to reduce global warming and to improve personal health,” said European Parliament vice president Edward McMillan-Scot.
“We must not ignore the impact global warming is having on our children and future generations for decades, possibly centuries, to come,” added McCartney.
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