Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday
Meatless Monday is an international campaign that encourages people to not eat meat on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet.
Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns Inc. in association with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Center for a Livable Future. Meatless Monday was founded in 2003 by marketing professional SidLerner. The program follows the nutrition guidelines developed by the USDA.[1] Meatless Monday is part of the Healthy Monday initiative.[2] Healthy Monday encourages Americans to make healthier decisions at the start of every week. Other Healthy Monday campaigns include: The Kids Cook Monday, Monday 2000, Quit and Stay Quit Monday, Move it Monday, The Monday Mile, and others.
Meatless Monday focusesits initiative on Mondays for multiple reasons. Monday is typically the beginning of the work week, the day when individuals settle back into their weekly routine. Unhealthy habits that prevailed over the weekend can be forgotten and replaced by positive choices.[3] A weekly reminder to restart healthy habits also encourages success. A 2009 trial published in the American Journal of PreventativeMedicine provided individuals with weekly health prompts and encouragement. Approximately two thirds of participants responded with improvements in their overall health, eating habits and physical activity levels.[4]

History

During World War I, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urged families to reduce consumption of key staples to help the war effort. Conserving food would supportU.S. troops as well as feed populations in Europe where food production and distribution had been disrupted by war. To encourage voluntary rationing, the FDA created the slogan “Food Will Win the War” and coined the terms "Meatless monday" and "Wheatless Wednesday” to remind Americans to reduce intake of these products.[5]
Herbert Hoover was the head of the Food Administration as well as theAmerican Relief Association during Woodrow Wilson's presidency, and played a key role implementing the campaign, which was one of Hoover’s many attempts to encourage volunteerism and sacrifice among Americans during the war. The FDA provided a wide variety of materials in addition to advertising, including recipe books and menus found in magazines, newspapers & government sponsored pamphlets.[6]
Thecampaign returned with the onset of World War II, calling upon women on the home front to play a role in supporting the war effort. During this time meat was being rationed, along with other commodities like sugar and gasoline.[7]
Meatless Monday was restarted in 2003 as a public health awareness program. The campaign was endorsed by the Center for a Livable Future (a division of the JohnsHopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) as well as over 20 public health schools. In April 2009, Meatless Monday launched an informational video noting the effects of meat consumption on climate change.
Meatless Monday is based in the United States, but meatless days (Monday in particular) are gaining popularity worldwide. Meat-free Mondays exist in the United Kingdom both as an advertisingcampaign for Goodlife Foods and as an environmental campaign.[8] On June 15, 2009 Paul McCartney and his daughters Stella and Mary launched a Meat-free Monday campaign with an official website. In December 2009 Meatless Mondays launched in Australia.[9]
In May 2009, the city of Ghent, Belgium became the first city with 'official' weekly vegetarian days. Veggie Thursday (or "Donderdag Veggiedag” inDutch) was created by the Ethical Vegetarian Alternative, an organization partially funded by the Flemish government.[10] Israeli magazine Al Hashulchan (On the Table) introduced the Sheni Tzimchoni (Vegetarian Monday) initiative in June 2009. Dozens of Israel’s top restaurants will create innovative meatless meals on Mondays throughout July and August 2009.[11] On April 6, 2010, San Francisco became...