Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton Pavilion, has asked the outlets catering for the Houses of Parliament to consider joining the Meat Free Monday campaign.
Parliament could “send a powerful message and set a great example by designating one day a week as meat-free,” she wrote to the parliamentary catering authorities, in a letter co-signed by Lib Dem MP for Manchester Withington, John Leech.
“Farming and slaughtering animals is now recognised as a significant contributor to today’s greatest environmental problems,” she says. “As well as saving carbon, reducing the amount of meat in our diets will also help improve health.”
A spokesperson for the Green Party reiterated today the importance of the MFM message: that individual choices about how and what we eat can make a real difference.
“Meat Free Monday is an inventive and useful idea,” the spokesperson said.
“The Green Party would like to see the UK move towards a situation in which people who choose to eat meat will opt for quality over quantity. A smaller amount of better-quality meat, produced in a sustainable way from animals that are well looked-after, would make for a tastier and healthier diet, better animal welfare and a significant contribution to tackling climate change.”