Meat-free Monday – Amelia Potter
The food and agricultural organisation of the United Nations stated that 18% of green-house gas emissions in this world, are a result of livestock farming. This compares to 13% being produced by worldwide transportation systems. Thus, some would say, the incentive of ‘meat free Monday’.
Controversy around this week’s Monday menu, sourced hyperbolic assertions of malnourishment as well as those of mountainous success. The vegetarians rejoiced as the carnivores turned up their noses.
To those who viewed it as a carb overload – There was soup, the hot dish was solely vegetables, protein can be sourced in the chilli-beans and lentils, or indeed dairy, a jacket potato is of no harm, and did you see the salad bar? Ultimately, there is always choice, the school is very good for that.
To those who believe it was a removal of a carnivore’s rights – When you have mac n’ cheese usually, is there meat in it? No, that would be a carbonara. The absence of one food group is something evident in each daily menu, it just so happened that the removal of meat was all at one time.
Also, to believe that meat is essential in your every-day diet, is a false belief. By law, schools must provide fully nutritious meals, we have the opportunity through various methods to source all the nutrition we need. It is of no relevance to say that, by having no meat for one lunch, you feel deprived and thus disapprove of this movement.
There may be some of you, funnily enough, who are reading this with some amount of confusion perhaps, like many others, because you simply did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Therefore, you must be thinking ‘why does it matter?’. This point clearly surfaces the idea that in fact, it is not a problem to miss a meal with meat and no more needs to be said.
This reflects my own opinion, although I did notice, I concluded a fascinating result. It is one I feel I must share due to the multiple and thorough observations I carried out, and it is simply and most sincerely 100% concluded that, ‘we all survived!’.
“But how?” I hear some ask. I feel no need to answer…
Interestingly, this non-profitable campaign was originally set up to improve a person’s diet so that they may carry on eating healthily over the following week. There was no intention of saving the planet like there might be associated around its recent re-newel today. Other healthy Monday traditions involve ‘move it Monday’ and ‘kids cook Monday’. All with no emphasis towards climate change and how the eating of meat is destructive. If you like meat but also the environment, maybe you can propose a new ‘Nose-to-tail Tuesday’?
It’s therefore important to take on multiple perspectives, as it is generally in life, before deciding upon one’s conclusion of a topic. I hope this may spark some further consideration to your original opinion.
Overall there are statistics that infer a relationship between greenhouse emissions produced from livestock and climate change, there is no denial of that in this article. A question I’d like to add is, surely this livestock will still be reared despite whether people eat meat or not, and wouldn’t this be because of dairy products? Therefore, could dairy free Thursday be the next menu choice, and thus the next topic of nutritional consideration…?
#takemeon
(If you have a view on the new Monday lunches, please share them with the editor). Here at The Bubble, we love them – but this is a platform for all of you to express your (reasonable) views.
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