Meatless May
Vegetarians, Lacto-Vegetarians, Ovo-Vegetarians, Vegans or Fruitarians… Today there are many diets that exclude either meat, dairy, eggs or a total of animal products. People renounce for various reasons — some to reject the exploitation of animals, others to improve their own health. I don’t like meat that much, which means a Burger from time to time, a piece of Bacon when I go out for Brunch or maybe some of the Christmas roast goose once a year. Just call me a part time Vegetarian, whatever that may be. But this system is working for me. In February 2015, I also tried vegan with a friend but this was meant to be a self-experiment and not permanent.
About three weeks ago a friend from Cape Town invited me to a Facebook event called “Meatless May” — a worldwide challenge for meat eaters during the first two weeks of May. Considering the fact that eating meat is not the problem of our society, but the intensive livestock farming that became necessary due to the rising global demand for meat, I really like the idea of meat eaters deliberately stopping their consumption for fourteen days in order to raise the awareness of what is going wrong in the world! Moreover I found out that the “Meatless May” is connected to the “Meatless Monday” — an idea that actually started during the First World War (!!!) and just came back to life in 2003. Imagine what could happen if everybody would have this one meatless day in their week? Just think about all these constipated chicken, the tortured cows and pigs, the starving children in countries where food is fed to animals instead of them that could be saved by our meat reduction. In my opinion the animal industry is crazy today and it’s time for us to start thinking about the consequences of our behaviour. Because WE ACTUALLY HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THINGS. Isn’t it just great to use Facebook for events like this? Last year, I joined a Facebook project against plastic bags and this year people don’t get them for free anymore.
The challenge is over in three days but I don’t know when I eat meat again. Maybe I reduce my dairy consumption first. We’ll see. But remember guys: It’s never too late to join the “Meatless May”.
