There is a movement in this country that has begun to pick up some speed according to a story in the Washington Post yesterday. It is the Meatless Monday campaign that is a "movement backed by a broad array of public-health advocates, animal welfare advocates and environmentalists that asks carnivores to give up meat one day a week." This is the perfect place to start for those of you who've started thinking about reducing the amount of meat you consume.
Meatless Mondays were first introduced during the second world war when it was all about giving things up for the cause. With so many of our young men and women fighting overseas it wasn't a hard sell and, in general, Americans hadn't yet come to feel quite so entitled to meat 3 times a day. I guess that partially explains why we weren't so fat in those days.
Needless to say the meat industry didn't like it then and they don't like it now. They are combating the argument by saying that their scientists suggest that eating meat often is actually the best possible thing for you. That would explain the Hormel commercial with the little boy holding a "meat" sandwich as big as his head........now what is wrong with that picture? In our culture that seems normal but in other cultures the meat on that little boy's sandwich would feed a family for a week.
But since this movement was brought back alive by a non-profit organization called Health Monday in association with John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2003 it has really begun to take off. Recently the chef Mario Batali has joined the movement and incorporated it into his fourteen usually very-meaty restaurants by offering a vegetarian selection with the moniker (MM). Also the Baltimore public schools, 32 US Hospitals (that seems like a good fit), and the city of Ghent in Belgium to name a few.
If you'd like a good recipe to start with you should check out my Portobello Stroganoff. It's delicious and you won't feel like you're missing a thing.
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