Where’s the beef?! (Meatless Mondays)
Some of you might remember when this was the catchy slogan shouted out by Clara Pellar in all those Wendy’s commercials. Oh my, how times have changed. Yesterday’s Washington Post had an article about how “Meatless Mondays” is becoming so popular that even celebrity-chef Mario Batali is getting on board. I’ve been to his restaurant Babbo many times, and now I can look forward to my next visit: in all of his fourteen restaurants, he’s decided to include two vegetarian options and highlight them on the menu with a “MM” logo. Molto bene, Mario!
The Meatless Monday campaign’s earliest appearances were during World War I, and then World War II, when the government was encouraging Americans to reduce their consumption of staple foods as a means of helping the war effort. In 2003, the campaign resurfaced with the help of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health when meat consumption was recognized as a contributor to climate change. As it turns out, going meatless one day a week is a “cruelty-free” choice that also has benefits for the environment.
What difference can a day make? If millions of people went meatless one-seventh of their week, it’s not difficult to see how that could have a dramatic impact on the overall market, not to mention individual waistlines. By dramatically reducing the demand for all this meat, factory farming could be on its way to being a thing of the past! And, along with the horrific treatment of animals on factory farms, we’d also be doing away with the pollution of the rivers that these farms cause with the astounding amount of waste produced each day. And less animal waste also means substantially less greenhouse gases released into the environment. It’s an all-around win — for animals, for our health, and for the health of the planet.
So what’s for dinner? Don’t panic, my non-veg friends. Some of the meals you eat regularly are vegetarian, even if you don’t think of them that way. In my Catholic-school days, every year when Lent came around (no meat on Fridays), “pizza day” was switched to the last day of the school week. It doesn’t have to get complicated. Feeling like Italian? Spaghetti with marinara sauce. Indian? Vegetable Korma. Mexican? Vegetable fajitas or a veggie burrito. You get the idea. The simpler you make it for yourself, the more likely you are to stick with it. For more ideas and new recipes weekly, check out the Meatless Mondays web site.
As for me, I’m looking forward to my next visit to Babbo — can’t wait to see what new delectable “MM” creations Mr. Batali has in store for me. Buon Appetito!
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Really enjoyed reading your blog. I don’t know what took me so long. I will be logging on regularly now. There is so much to read and think about. For now, I will definitely designate 1 or 2 days to going meatless. Will also look up the websites you mentioned. Thanks