On Saturday 16 January, the Vision Group for Sidmouth will be holding a Community Market with a difference! This time the event will have a “meat-free” theme, to raise awareness of the climate-changing impact of meat production and consumption and provide information on the wide variety of alternatives to meat-based meals.
Many people are unaware that livestock production is responsible for at least 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions – that’s more than the entire transport sector. According to the head of the UN climate change panel, Rajendra Pachauri, “People should consider eating less meat as a way of combating global warming.”
In May 2009, Ghent City Council in Belgium attracted worldwide media and public attention when it announced that it would promote one meat-free day a week for environmental and health reasons. Meanwhile, the “Meat-Free Monday” campaign continues to snowball around the world, led by high-profile chefs and celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney.
Now Sidmouth too is doing its bit to support this important initiative. According to the market organisers, “Going meat-free one day a week is an easy step we can all take to reduce our carbon footprint – and it’s good for your health, too!”
The market takes place as usual from 10 am – 12.30 pm at St John’s Ambulance Hall. In addition to fresh fruit and vegetables and the other usual stalls, shoppers will find a vegetarian food stall, information on meat-free alternatives, recipes and free food samples.
For further information on the “Meat-Free Monday” campaign including weekly recipes, see www.supportmfm.org
I’m all for a Meat free Monday, or any other day .I regularly eat vegetarian meals but please allow people to make their own choice!
I regularly buy veg from the various stalls at the Saturday Farmers market in Sidmouth as well as fish from the Trout Farm stall and chicken pieces from the free Range meat stall and freeze some of it to use throughout the month, until the next Market. It seems I wont be able to do this on Sat. 15th.
So what have you told these stall holders-we dont want you here this Saturday? So much for their support in the past!
Hello Eileen. Thank you for your comment. It’s clear that you go out of your way to source your meat & fish from ethical producers like the ones who usually attend the Sidmouth market. I myself are vegetarian but I understand your feelings and I will try to find one of the organisers of the market to come and respond to your comment. I will be attending the market myself tomorrow for the first time and I’m very much looking forward to it. I do hope you will still do your shopping there and support the traders who attend. You never know, there may be more new and unusual products there for you to try this month.
Sharon
Dear Eileen, I am replying as one of the people who helped to organise the “meat-free” community market. It was a one-off event to draw attention to the importance of reducing meat consumption as a way of reducing our carbon footprint (as well as improving animal welfare and our own health). I agree that if people are going to buy meat they should buy free-range and organic meat and not the factory farmed variety, although the fact remains that meat production – of whatever kind – is more environmentally destructive (in terms of emissions, pollution and water use) and less efficient than growing crops for direct human consumption. But there is another problem here: the terms “organic” and “free-range” are not always as trustworthy as they seem. A case in point is Otter Valley Poultry, which has previously supplied Sidmouth’s community market, and which has been shown in an undercover investigation by Animal Aid to be anything but “high-welfare”. Some birds were found which were so badly crippled that they were unable to stand, for example, and dead animals were found in a shed with live birds. I’m not decrying all free range meat, but it is important to beware of “greenwash”, and to look carefully into the rearing and slaughter of the animals we consume. I’m glad to say that there was a very positive response at yesterday’s market to the information and recipes on display, which is an encouraging sign that this issue is starting to creep into the public consciousness.
Thank you Sharon, really appreciate you coming on the site to answer Eileen’s comment. Best of luck with all the future markets.
Hello All,
When will the human being wake up to the fact that ‘WE’ ARE THE PROBLEM’
WE have over populated this glorious planet, WE , not the cows, and all the other species in the world, are THE BIGGEST POLLUTERS, we have degraded the earth to such a state that it will not be able to sustain our lives. We need to embrace sustainable populations, and yes that does mean all of us producing less children, so that those that are already here might have a chance to survive. This is the voice of common sense, so the issue which needs to be awakened is that each one of us takes responsibility for
our actions, stop being in denial, and face the biggest problem in the world POPULATIONS GLOBALLY. ACT LOCALLY THINK GLOBALLY.