Argentina's Vegan Mondays

Animal farming is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation. It is said to be contributing more than all the cars in the world. This was discovered by a UN study. In my book, I share information about the environmental and other effects of meat.

I am a vegetarian but open to people who choose to eat meat as a source of protein.

It takes a lot of effort for families to take the correct steps (consistently) to turning vegetarian, vegan or just trying to add more vegetables to their diet. So, I was amazed to read this article on how Argentina - a whole country - is taking significant steps on making sure that their citizens are healthy. “In a bid to start a debate on health and the national diet, it has instituted meat-free Mondays. For one lunch each week, the canteen will only serve vegan options to the 500-plus employees, including President Mauricio Macri.”

What makes this even more interesting is that Argentina used to hold the title of the world’s biggest beefeaters, and now they are added to the list of countries investigating ways to limit meat consumption. There are many reasons why the Argentinian people decided to take these steps. Argentinian boys are ranked the most obese in all of Latin America and girls are ranked the third highest. The primary cause is the excessive eating of beef. “Daily consumption per person in Argentina—150g—is over double the recommended amount.” Apart from the health drawbacks, animal pastures have been blamed for 90% of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Beef is a particularly voracious user of water, with 15,000 litres of water needed to produce a kilogram of the meat.

Another country that tried following a “Veggie Day” concept is Germany, but they faced backlash from the citizens. However, Germany’s ministry of environment shared that it would stop serving meat and fish at official functions earlier this year.

I am hoping that we follow these examples within our own families.

https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/10/economist-explains-13?fsrc=gnews