Better known for his musical abilities than his environmental concerns, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, together with two of his daughters, is campaigning to persuade people to forgo eating meat for one day each week.
This would not only lead to fewer animals being farmed — last year 308.5 million tons of meat were produced, a 25-fold increase during the last two centuries — and a significant reduction in greenhouse and polluting gas emissions, but eating less meat would also be good for peoples’ health. And, who knows, it might even persuade people to eat fish if they are not eating meat.
The fields at the edge of the housing estate on which McCartney grew up and where he used to observe wild birds has led to a commitment to campaigning to conserve the environment and combat climate change. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Sir Paul said that an FAO report in 2006 stating that livestock were responsible for 18 percent of the world’s emissions of greenhouse gases was a seminal moment for him.
FAO has since revised down its estimate to 14.5 percent, although some scientists insist this figure is too low. The 2006 report also concluded that farming animals for meat production produced 100 other polluting gases in addition to methane and nitrous oxide, including ammonia, which is responsible for acid rain.
Determined to “do something,” the McCartneys decided to follow organizations in the United States and Australia advocating meatless days once a week. They decided that Monday would be the ideal day “because people often overindulge over the weekend and have a guilty feeling,” said Sir Paul.
Not only would eating less meat be good for the environment, it would be also be good for human health. Sir Liam Donaldson, the former U.K. government chief medical officer, has stated that reducing the British population’s consumption of animal products by 30 percent by 2030 would prevent 18,000 premature deaths a year.
The Roman Catholic practice of fasting on Friday basically meant not eating meat and led to an increase in fish consumption on that day. It would be good to think that if Meat Free Mondays take off — and apparently the McCartney campaign has attracted support from so-called environmental pressure groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the World Wildlife Fund, plus, of course, a clutch of celebrities — then fish consumption would significantly rise.
However, based on past experience, whatever positive news is published about fish, consumption continues to decline. The seafood industry seems to have a death wish by its continued reluctance to make the most of the many good things that are said about its products.
The message these days is all about sustainability and few would argue that this is a key fact to get across. However, when this translates into the constant harping on which species are “safe” to eat and which species should be avoided, then the overall message is one of negativity.
It has also been argued in many quarters that most consumers aren’t terribly interested in whether fish have been sustainably harvested. They inevitably rely on who is selling the fish to have looked after this for them, and are more interested in such factors as appearance, taste and price.
So if the members of the seafood industry will not focus on trying to get people to eat more fish, will the McCartneys’ campaign for people to stop eating meat for one day a week do it for them? We shall have to wait and see.
