25 April 2011 | Tierney Smith
Food and agriculture, North America

 

Toyota and the U.S. Department of the Interior are the latest to join the famous line-up, which includes Paul McCartney, Gwyneth Paltrow and Oprah, cutting meat from their diets once a week.

Sodexo, a food service provider for businesses and institutions, last week introduced 2000 new corporate and government clients to the Meatless Monday’s movement, including Toyota, Northern Trust Bank and the U.S Department of Interior.

It began in 2003 as a public health awareness campaign in association with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the U.S. and the movement, created by the Monday Campaigns, a not-for-profit public health initiative, from a concern over both the health effects of a diet with excessive meat content and its environmental impact.

The campaign was endorsed by over 20 schools of public health, with the goal of encouraging Americans to reduce their risk of preventable disease by cutting back on saturated fat.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated in 2006 the global livestock sector was the fastest growing agricultural sector, something still true today, contributing to about 40 per cent of global farming and around 9 per cent of global emissions of CO2, as well as producing other harmful greenhouse gases including nitrous oxide.

The Meatless Monday campaign also acknowledges the water footprint of meat, estimating up to 10,000 litres of water go into producing a single pound of beef.

Talking about Toyota’s inclusion in the campaign, Will Nicklas, Corporate Manager for Corporate Services at Toyota Motor Sales, Inc. said: “Providing an opportunity for eating meatless one day a week is a simple way for us to address the dietary concerns of our customers and in part advance our own environmental objectives.

“Meatless Monday has been successful here primarily because Sodexo helps our customers understand that it is not all about becoming vegetarians or even weight loss, it’s about taking easy steps to guard our health and be good stewards of our environment”

Sodexo first launched their meatless campaign when they introduced 900 hospitals in the U.S. to the Meatless Monday scheme and will begin another round recruitment in the fall, when they will officially launch the campaign for their college and school clients.

The company also plans to introduce pilot programs in their senior living facilities later this year.

 

Image: Lee J Haywood | flickr

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