Belgium City Encourages Residents to Go Meatless on Thursdays
It is always good to hear about people who are taking a proactive approach to promote vegetarianism - but it is even better to learn that an entire city is taking steps to get its people to pass on the meat and to eat more veggies.
According to reports, the city of Ghent, Belgium is launching its first “Veggie Day” celebration. In accordance with this special day, the city is encouraging its residents as well as the city’s residents to pass on the meat for one day each week in order to help preserve our planet.
The Flanders’ Ethical Vegetarian Association, which is one of the groups that is promoting the event, estimates that the city can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by a whopping 18% per day if its residents skip on the pork, beef, fish and chicken one day per week. These findings are consistent with the findings published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in 2006.
Environmental concerns weren’t the only reason the city decide to promote going meat-free, however, as concerns regarding animal welfare, human health and labor issues also give good reason to skip on the meat.
Although residents will not be required to skip on the meat once per day, the city claims to be the first in Europe to take such drastic measures to try to get its residents to go meatless. This includes requiring every restaurant in the city to guarantee a vegetarian dish to be on the menu every Thursday and for the schools to provide a vegetarian lunch every Thursday as its primary lunch option.
It will certainly be interesting to see how well the citizens of Ghent embrace “meat-free Thursdays.” Hopefully, other countries around the world will follow the city’s lead and start encouraging their residents to do the same.
Tags: Belgium, Veggie Day