The Humane Society of the United States is praising the University of Notre Dame for becoming the latest university to join the international Meatless Monday movement.
The University of Notre Dame is participating in Meatless Monday by increasing its meat-free options on Mondays and educating students about the health benefits of eating more meat-free meals. Students will be able to choose from fresh new dishes such as Casablanca Stew, a rich blend of vegetables, beans, potatoes and Mediterranean flavors, and Vegetable Pancakes.
“Notre Dame Food Services is committed to ensuring the good health of our students, and being a good steward to our planet and animals, which is why we’re participating in Meatless Monday,” said Lisa Wenzel, assistant director at Notre Dame Food Services.
“Americans simply don’t need to eat the high volume of animal products we’ve gotten used to eating—it’s bad for our health, for the local and global environments, and it’s not good for farmers or for animals,” said Kenny Torrella, outreach coordinator of farm animal protection at The Humane Society of the United States. “The Humane Society of the United States is pleased that Notre Dame is joining the effort to show that being socially responsible can also be delicious.”
The Meatless Monday campaign, now a popular international movement, began in 2003 at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, to promote cutting out meat one day a week for our health and the health of the planet.
Although Americans are eating less meat than we were just five years ago, representing the first significant decline in domestic meat consumption in decades, meat consumption at current levels is just not sustainable. The HSUS promotes programs like Notre Dame’s Meatless Monday to accelerate this positive trend toward reduced meat consumption.
High demand for meat pressures farmers to opt for more industrialized production systems where they can lose touch with the animals. These systems also squeeze smaller farmers who have a harder time competing with factory farms.
Facts:
- Meatless Monday is an international movement to raise awareness of the benefits of reduced meat consumption by bringing attention to the animal welfare, environmental and public health impacts of industrial meat production.
- Polls show that 50 percent of people in America are aware of Meatless Monday and that roughly one in five are participating in it.
- Going meat-free one day a week can help improve public health too: People who eat fewer animal products have lower rates of weight gain, dementia, arthritis, high blood pressure, kidney disease, and other health problems than people who eat a typical American diet.
To sign up for a weekly Meatless Monday recipe via email or text message, visit
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/eating/meatfree-guide-2011/.
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