South Africa is joining the global move to encourage people to have one day a week free of meat. It’s a small move with a big impact on the environment, on animals and on health.
The environment
Eating less meat can help minimize the ecological footprint of your food because stock breeding has a detrimental impact on the environment.
A United Nations report states that emissions from livestock make up 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions. That is more than every form of transportation combined. Two of the gases they produce are methane and nitrous oxide. Methane is twenty times more powerful than carbon dioxide in terms of global warming potential, and 37% of the emissions from livestock are methane. Nitrous oxide comes from livestock manure, and these emissions are 65% of all nitrous oxide emitted in the world.
There are a host of additional issues regarding meat production, these include the vast amounts of water it takes to produce meat, deforestation to make pastures, overgrazing turning pastures into deserts, pesticides, antibiotics and hormones making their way into our drinking water, and waste from feed production that places nutrients into the water that promotes weeds taking over all forms of vegetation.
Animals
The increase in meat production over time would not have been possible without the development of commercial methods of farming, which have ignored the rights of animals who are deprived of exercise, fresh air and social interaction.
Compassion in World Farming have revealed that by introducing a meat free day in South Africa – 11 200 cattle, 2 million chickens, 10 000 pigs and 22 300 sheep will not face slaughter each week.
Our Health
The campaign hopes to perpetuate a healthy message by raising awareness of the importance of limiting saturated fat in our diet, which nutritionists say contributes significantly to several diseases which have reached epidemic proportions.
Cutting out meat one day a week will help prevent four of the leading causes of death: heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer. Reducing the intake of meat means reducing the consumption of saturated fat.
Public Health experts suggest that reducing our daily intake of meat by 60%, will help reduce excess weight and obesity and result in benefits to individuals and society
Why Mondays?
It has been recognized that adding a time factor to a message helps people to change their behavior. In addition to memorable alliteration, Mondays are traditionally the “start healthy eating” day of the week.
