Meatless Mondays, a good idea worth looking at

Going meatless on Friday or Saturday - when more people dine out - would have a greater impact. Some fast food joints offer stuff like veggie burgers or fish burgers (although I wonder - are fish included in the "meatless" idea?).

Unless you make it a "vegan Monday" then I doubt it will have any impact at all.  All farmed animal products including dairy require animals to be kept, fed calories, slaughtered (they don't get to go retire at HappyFarm Pastures when they stop producing, and the males who can't produce dairy products have to go somewhere), and housed on land.  Serving a dish with no meat, but which still has dairy in it isn't going to help anything.

And vegan won't do much for the environment for us here if you're getting your organic veggies from California during the winter, either.  (Although in LA it might be easier to get vegetables locally sourced all year-round, if the food system was set up that way.  Unfortunately, with the famous food deserts in that city, it's not quite that easy either.)

I am coming around to your point of view on this as well, Timebandit.  I'm just saying that even if we accepted the original premise, that lower on the food chain is better for the environment, using dairy and not meat really isn't any lower on the food chain.

The health reasons for having a more balanced diet (and not just WRT meat) are documented. And while meat consumption isn't solely responsible for habitat destruction or animal cruelty, there certainly is a case to be made that the overconsumption of meat, and the effect of industry lobbys promoting it, are generally negative.

But there's no need to accept or reject it based on a doctrinaire approach. It can also just be a good exercise in trying a new approach to your food - for one thing, the fact that small portions of meat or no meat at all - can often be just as satisfying as a portion which takes up two thirds of your plate. In some cases even more satisfying.

I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago - chicken soup is so nice when it's cold!  I also made a batch of drop cheese biscuits a la Edna Staebler. 

Cold OUT.  My bad.  Moving too fast to finish sentences today.

6079_Smith_W wrote:

I'm not familiar with all the science, but I have heard that clogged arteries has more to do with processed oils and fats than with lard, butter, goose and chicken fat, which are actually supposed to be very good for you in moderation.

That was not meant to be taken literally, but thank you for the learning moment.

Unless something catastrophic happens, I'll likely die of a combination of old age, genetic predisposition, and environmental toxins.  Like most of us.

Though I may take up extreme skiing in avalanche prone areas.

Slumberjack wrote:

Meatless activism is designed with mostly urban dwellers in mind to try their hand at.  In the face of the totality of corporate animal cruelty, it's like acquiring an indulgence through the withholding of money in this instance.

Strange that you call it activism. I'm vegan, but not a member of PETA and I quite frankly don't see my veganism in any political light. To me it's just a lifestyle choice out of compassion for animals.

Besides, for such a lifestyle choice that affects your daily choices a few times a day every day, I doubt that political activism alone would provide the necessary motivation to keep that up. It's not like "meatless Mondays" or some other day reserved for the purpose.