Meatless Monday
Meatless Monday and Meat Free Monday are international campaigns that encourage people to not eat meat on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet.
In 2003, Meatless Monday, founded by marketing professional Sid Lerner,[1][2][3] is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns Inc. in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for a Livable Future. Meatless Monday is based in the United States.
In 2009, Meat Free Monday was founded by Paul McCartney, along with his daughters Mary McCartney, and Stella McCartney.[4]
History[edit]
Greece[edit]
In the Greek island of Crete, the tradition of consuming legumes every Monday is deeply ingrained, with meat traditionally considered inappropriate to eat on this day. This aligns with the religious observance of Clean Monday in Greece, marking the start of Lent and emphasizing purity, including abstinence from meat. This practice fits well with the Meat Free Monday initiative, reflecting Crete's traditional diet where vegetables and legumes dominate (70% of intake), while meat (10%) and fish and seafood (20%) are less commonly consumed.[5] This culinary tradition aligns with cultural and religious practices aimed at improving health and minimising environmental impact.
United States[edit]
During World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation calling for every Tuesday to be meatless and for one meatless meal to be observed every day, for a total of nine meatless meals each week.[6] The United States Food Administration (USFA) urged families to reduce consumption of key staples to help the war effort and avoid rationing. Conserving food would support U.S. troops as well as feed populations in Europe where food production and distribution had been disrupted by the war. To encourage voluntary rationing, the USFA created the slogan “Food Will Win the War” and coined the terms "Meatless Tuesday" and "Wheatless Wednesday” to remind Americans to reduce intake of those products.[7]
Herbert Hoover was the head of the Food Administration as well as the American 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 USFA provided a wide variety of materials in addition to advertising, including recipe books and menus found in magazines, newspapers and government-sponsored pamphlets.[8]
The campaign 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.[9] The Truman administration, through the Citizens Food Committee, encouraged "Meatless Tuesdays" and "Poultryless Thursdays" throughout the autumn of 1947; backlash was swift, noncompliance was rampant, and the poultry lobby responded with the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation, the forerunner of the modern "turkey pardon."[10]
Vegetarianism adoption[edit]
Meatless Mondays is related to efforts to add daily vegetarian and vegan school meals.
Committed engagement in Meatless Mondays has been associated with a higher likelihood of adopting a vegetarian diet. A 2021 study found that one-third of participants who continually partook in Meatless Monday became vegetarian after 5 years.[23][24]