Meat free monday, help the planet

Paul McCartney, right, stands with Yoko Ono during a photocall to launch a new food campaign entitled 'Meat Free Monday' in London, Monday June 15, 2009. The campaign encourages people to try and help slow climate change by having one meat free day a week.Like many of us you will be aware of the urgent need to reduce global CO2 emissions in order to slow the rate of climate change and protect the environment.

McCartney's meat-free mission will be supported by several high-profile chefs, including Giorgio Locatelli and Yotam Ottolenghi, who have created vegetarian recipes for the campaign's website. Linda McCartney Foods is also promoting the message, while Oliver Peyton and other restaurant owners will be highlighting meat-free dishes. The ongoing campaign hopes in future to measure the number of people switching to meat-free Mondays and reducing CO2 emissions.

The complete Linda McCartney range can be found on the brand new Linda
McCartney Foods website. http://www.lindamccartneyfoods.co.uk

The Hain Celestial Group, owners of the Linda McCartney range, is the
largest natural and organic food company in the world, and was named the
Greenest Company in the UK food and drink industry (according to The Sunday
Times Green List published on 24th May 09). Based in New York, the company
manufactures, markets, distributes and sells natural and organic food
products. The company's UK headquarters are in Luton, with a factory in
Fakenham, Norfolk.

The UK’s Food Climate Research Network suggests that food production from farm to fork is responsible for between 20-30 percent of global green house gas emissions. Livestock production is responsible for around half of these emissions. The more meat we produce and eat the bigger that carbon footprint will get. A sustainable future demands that we cut down - and yet between 1961 and 2007 the world population increased by a factor of 2.2, but meat consumption quadrupled, and poultry consumption increased 10-fold.


As a result the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has concluded 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’.

To build a better world in the future we all need to make changes in our lifestyles now. Not all the changes we have to make are easy; and not all the easy changes we can make are meaningful. But making just one day a week a meat-free day is really is the little thing that can make a big change. For instance, the group Compassion in World Farming estimate that if the average UK household halved its consumption of meat this would cut more emissions than if car use was cut in half. By making a simple change in the way you eat, you are taking part in a world changing campaign where what’s good for you is also good for the planet.

Sir Paul McCartney has followed in the footsteps of the world's leading climate scientist and a small Belgian town by calling on people to go meat-free one day a week and cut carbon emissions.

Backed by celebrities ranging from Chris Martin to Sheryl Crow, McCartney today launched his Meat Free Monday campaign asking households to cut out meat on Mondays and slow global warming.

"I think many of us feel helpless in the face of environmental challenges, and it can be hard to know how to sort through the advice about what we can do to make a meaningful contribution to a cleaner, more sustainable, healthier world," said McCartney. "Having one designated meat free day a week is actually a meaningful change that everyone can make, that goes to the heart of several important political, environmental and ethical issues all at once."

Reducing meat consumption didn't just slow climate change, he said, but would help to fight global hunger and improve the welfare of animals.

Last year the world's leading authority on climate change, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, told the Observer that going meat-free once a week was the "most attractive" way for individuals to reduce emissions. Earlier this year The Guardian revealed that hospitals in the NHS were taking meat off menus as part of a strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions, while just last month the Belgian town of Ghent announced plans to make every Thursday a meat-free day.

The links between meat and climate change have been well-known for several years. A UN study in 2006 showed that the livestock industry was responsible for a staggering 18% of man's global greenhouse gas emissions, partly because of deforestation in the Amazon.

“the planet life” concern to publicize that What`s about with life.
Remember that the Earth, is the planet of life and this live.
Just what this live may die.