Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University, says both climate change and the obesity epidemic could be tackled if we ate meat only on traditional “feast” days, such as Christmas.
“Let’s go back to where culture has been for thousands of years, which is meat is an exception,” says Professor Lang. “If you were growing meat yourself, it is an incredibly slow process and killing and eating an animal is a special day.”
Rather than advocate a Meat Free Monday, Lang – an advisor not only to the Department for Environment but also the World Health Organization – went further, suggesting that the environmental and health impacts of too much meat meant it should be a once-a-week treat at most.
“I am saying instead of having one day where you do not eat meat, eat meat once a week and have really good, grass-fed meat.”