Meatless Monday is a movement a nonprofit established in partnership with the Johns Hopkins School of Public health to promote eating only vegetarian meals on Mondays. Sid Lerner, the nonprofit founder, redirected his Madison Avenue advertising executive skills to the cause of reducing saturated fat in the diets of Americans. Lerner developed heart disease, which inspired him to champion the cause.
History
The Meatless Monday nonprofit organization based its concept for the promotion of mass voluntary vegetarianism on wartime dietary recommendations by former United States presidents. During World War I and World War II, Woodrow Wilson, Henry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt asked Americans to reduce meat consumption to benefit the economy, according to the Meatless Monday website.
Impact
The Meatless Monday campaign is reaching a wide variety of groups in the United States. The Baltimore school system has adopted meat-free Mondays. In 2009, an estimated 80,000 school children participated. Official supporters of the campaign include Toyota, AARP, Oprah, Michael Pollan, Epicurious.com and Martha Stewart's "Body and Soul" magazine.
Environmental Impact
The Meatless Monday nonprofit organization hopes the campaign will bring attention to and reduce the meat production industry's harmful environmental impact in the United States. It takes 40 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce 1 calorie of beef, according to the Meatless Monday website. The water resources committed to beef production are also significant. A total of 140 bathtubs of water are required to produce 2 lbs. of beef, according to Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute.
The Response
The Meatless Monday movement appears to be catching on in the United States. In 2009, a public opinion poll found that 20 percent of Americans were familiar with Meatless Monday, according to the NPR website. The campaign singled out Monday at the day of the week to eat vegetarian, Lerner said, because good habits that start on Monday often filter out into days later in the week. The weekly meat consumption of Americans was 4.2 lbs. per week when Lerner began the movement. Lerner hopes meat consumption will reduce over time and improve the health status of Americans.
