If you want to live a healthy low-carbon life, eating less meat and more vegetables could be an effective and practical way of doing it, according to the organizers of the Meat-Free Monday campaign.
Following the lead of famous British singer and former Beatle Paul McCartney, who is promoting the Meat-Free Monday campaign, some local activists are launching a “Meat-Free Monday platform” in Taiwan on Sept. 21.
Alex Su, a vegetarian writer and one of the platform’s founders, says it’s vital that the campaign to wean people off meat eventually bears fruit. “Nature’s counterattack is reminding Taiwan that it is time to actively protect our environment,” he says. Su points out that, according to statistics compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in 2006, livestock production, not humans, is the biggest producer of carbon dioxide, as it accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions — a bigger share than the petrochemical industry, cars, and motorcycles, which were mistakenly thought to be the major causes in the past.
The goal of the platform is to encourage people to keep their tables free of meat on Mondays and ask restaurants to offer their customers meat-free dishes as one-third of all items on the menu on that day. It will also work with supermarkets to introduce vegetarian counters, and with airlines to offer vegetarian meals on board. It will hold a meat-free forum and invite the mayor of Ghent in Belgium, which is known around the world for promoting Thursday as a vegetarian day, to give a speech. At the same time, it will cooperate with the media by flasing up Meat-Free Monday reminders during TV shows.
Su says the demand for meat products has been growing at an astonishing speed. The growth of the livestock industry has led to forests being destroyed to make room for pasture, while a massive amount of carbon dioxide is created during the production of both frozen meat and processed meat products. Tree planting as a means of protecting the environment takes three to five years to yield results. Transforming the petrochemical industry will be even more difficult. Meat production is the prime culprit of global warming, but it’s an area that’s relatively easy to improve.
Su said that the platform will set a two-year goal. It will first try various methods to turn meat-free Mondays into a habit, calling on the government to declare Mondays to be veggie days throughout Taiwan within the first year. Then, in the second year, it hopes to make the country a starting point to link up with likeminded groups worldwide and get all major countries in the world to join the Meat-Free Monday campaign.<>P>(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG)
想要過健康減碳新生活，少吃肉，改吃素，可能是有效的具體行動之一，響應「週一無肉日」更是民眾的新選擇！
繼英國前披頭四樂團知名歌手保羅．麥卡尼帶頭推廣週一無肉日後，國內民間人士也將於九二一當天，正式發起台灣版的「週一無肉日平台」。
發起人素食作家蘇小歡說：「大自然的反撲，提醒台灣的人民，該有些積極的環保作為了！」他指出，聯合國農糧組織（ＦＡＯ）在二００六年所做的統計資料就已經指出，二氧化碳最大的製造者，並非人類，而是畜牧業，畜牧業所排放的二氧化碳占全球總排放量的百分之十八，比過去被誤解的元凶—所有石化業、汽車、摩托車等加起來還高。
週一無肉日平台，目標將推動民眾週一餐桌無肉，餐館週一提供三分之一無肉菜單供消費者點用，並將結合量販業者推動素料專櫃，希望結合航空業者推動機上無肉餐，還將舉辦無肉餐高峰論壇，並邀請推動「週四無肉日」而聞名國際的比利時根特市長來台演講，同時結合電子媒體，透過跑馬燈提醒大家「週一無肉日」。
蘇小歡說，人類對肉品的需求量以驚人速度成長，畜牧業的發展不只導致森林遭濫墾來提供牧地，冷凍肉類及產製肉品過程，更釋放出大量的二氧化碳，想要透過種樹達到環保效果，需要三到五年，透過石化業輔導轉型更是困難重重，肉品產製過程就是造成地球暖化的第一元凶，但這也是比較可以有效改善的部分。
蘇小歡說，週一無肉日平台將設定兩年的目標時間，透過各種力量讓週一無肉日成為全民生活習慣，進而讓官方在第一年主動宣布週一為全台灣的無肉日，第二年則希望以台灣為起點，串聯全球有志團體，讓全球重要國家都加入週一無肉日行列。
（自由時報記者楊久瑩）
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