Meatless Monday Ghana Campaign launched

The Meatless Monday Ghana Campaign has been officially launched on Sunday 25th October 2015 at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park in Accra, during the 10th Annual Vegetarian Festival (Vegfest) organised by the Vegetarian Association of Ghana.

Meatless Monday is an international campaign that encourages people around the world to go Meatless on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet. The campaign aims at spreading awareness and promoting healthy lifestyles by cutting down on meat consumption. Going meatless one day a week helps the environment, helps animals, and helps to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity and other serious health conditions.

The Meatless Monday Ghana team aims to organise lectures, monthly Veg House Party (a healthy lifestyle variety show), drama, cooking demonstrations and public events to educate people on how to prepare and enjoy tasty meatless meals on Mondays.

As part of activities to mark the launch of the campaign nationally, Meatless Monday is partnering two renowned vegetarian restaurants in Ghana, Asaasepa Natural Food and Products, and Health Valley International Vegetarian Restaurant for a 10% discount to clients on Mondays, starting from Monday 26th October 2015.

Also, fifty youths from poor communities in Koforidua in the Eastern Region and Accra were given free vegan launch and snacks during the Vegfest which took take place on 24th and 25th October 2015 from 9am to 6pm each day.

According to Mrs. Ady Namaran Clottey, the Campaign Manager, adhering to a vegan diet at least one day a week is a gift we give to ourselves. “We feel better and the quality of our life improves”, she stated. Reasons she cited for going vegan at least one day in the week include personal health and nutrition, ecology and the environment, ethics and animal suffering, and world hunger.

Health and Nutrition

Studies of human evolution have shown that our ancestors were vegetarian by nature. Because our small intestines are longer than those found in carnivores, the meat we eat stays in our intestines for a longer period of time. Consequently, the meat can decompose and create toxins, causing colon cancer, cirrhosis and even cancer of the liver.

Ecology and the Environment

Raising animals for meat leads to rain forest destruction, global heat rising, water pollution, water scarcity, desertification, misuse of energy resources and world hunger. The use of land, water, energy and human effort to produce meat is not an efficient way to use the earth’s resources. Many people could be fed if the resources used to raise cattle were used to produce grain to feed the world’s population.

Animal Suffering

Most animals in “factory farms” are crowded together, disfigured and treated like machines for the conversion of feed into flesh. This is a reality that most of us will never see with our eyes. It has been said that, “One visit to a slaughterhouse will make you a vegan for life.”

World Hunger

Nearly one billion people suffer from hunger and malnutrition on the planet. Over 40 million die each year of starvation, and most of them are children. Despite this, more than one-third of the world’s grain harvest is diverted from feeding people to feeding livestock.

The Meatless Monday Ghana Campaign is in partnership with the International Vegetarian Union (IVU) Africa, the Nigerian Vegetarian Society, with support from A Well-Fed World (AWFW).