The Environmental Spectator
Meatless Meatheads
The people’s republic of Cambridge unveils a tasty solution to climate change.
Why did the chicken in Cambridge, Massachusetts cross the road?
So it could combat the climate emergency on the other side.
Tip O’Neill, the late House Speaker born in Cambridge, marveled at the ability of left-wing activists to “come up with a cure for which there is no known disease.”
How else can one explain the Cambridge Climate Congress? Chicken Little is alive and well and living in the People’s Republic of Cambridge.
Established by Cambridge City Council in May 2009, the Climate Congress has put forth a series of recommendations “to respond to the climate emergency” in Cambridge. According to the Congress, it is an emergency that has been “created by the growth of local greenhouse gas emissions.” These recommendations include the institution of a local carbon tax, the taxation of plastic and paper bags, and the elimination of street side parking. But the one recommendation that grabbed my attention was the establishment of “Meatless Mondays.” To be precise:
Asking/mandating that local restaurants and schools institute “Meatless or Vegan Mondays” to increase community awareness and reduce reliance on meat, dairy and eggs as food sources.
I guess Free Range Fridays just couldn’t make the cut.
The Cambridge Climate Congress seeks to “raise awareness and promote action about the connection between food choices and climate change.” What exactly the connection is between climate change and not serving meat on Mondays isn’t made clear in their recommendations.
However, according to a report issued by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in November 2006, livestock generates more greenhouse gas emissions than automobiles. The report also concluded that raising livestock is a major source of land and water degradation. In September 2008, Rajendra Pachuari, chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, called on people to refrain from eating meat one day a week in an effort to combat climate change. Last December, shortly before the Copenhagen Climate Conference, Pachuari was joined by Sir Paul McCartney in a presentation before the European Parliament to promote this idea with the slogan, “Less Meat=Less Heat.” Needless to say, eating fish fingers on Penny Lane is a distant memory for the ex-Beatle.
Yet nevertheless “Meatless Mondays” is beginning to catch on. Indeed, it was recently instituted in the Baltimore public school system. But the Cambridge Climate Congress wants to take it a step further and extend this policy beyond schools. It wants to include local restaurants.
Upon reading this policy recommendation the first thing that came to mind was Frank’s Steak House, a family restaurant I have occasionally patronized. Frank’s has been a fixture in North Cambridge for over seven decades. It was a favorite haunt of the aforementioned Tip O’Neill. How would have good old Tip reacted had he been told he couldn’t enjoy a plate of steak tips? If Cambridge ends up “mandating” that local restaurants implement “Meatless Monday” at their establishments, how exactly would it affect Frank’s Steak House? Would there be no porterhouse served near Porter Square?
“We’re not going to do that. We’re a steakhouse.” That was the reaction of George Ravanis, co-owner of Frank’s Steak House, to whom I spoke over the phone. Ravanis went on to say if the city had any intention of acting on this recommendation that he would be in “the front row at city hall asking them if they had lost their minds.” Yet he was more amused than he was angry. “It’s typical Cambridge,” said Ravanis. “It’s typical of what people think of Cambridge.” Besides what exactly is Ravanis to do if a family from Rhode Island drives all the way up to Cambridge on a Monday night to enjoy a sizzler only to find out his establishment isn’t allowed to serve it?
Now it is certainly possible that Cambridge City Council will be practical enough to recognize that imposing such a recommendation would be little more than chicken potpie in the sky. Would they compel McDonald’s on Massachusetts Avenue not to serve Big Macs on Mondays? Would they have Legal Sea Foods in Kendall Square stop serving New England Clam Chowder to the lunchtime crowd at the start of the workweek? Unless you serve vegan fare, who in their right mind would want to open an eatery in Cambridge? Does Cambridge really want its meat lovers to go on the lamb to Somerville to satiate their carnivorous cravings? Why would Cambridge want to subject itself to such ridicule and ribbing?
Yet one can never underestimate the capacity of government to butt in places where it does not belong. If Cambridge should decide that restaurants must go meatless on Mondays, what is to prevent them from telling grocery stores they cannot sell meat on Tuesdays? Then, again, even if Cambridge went completely meatless somehow I don’t think it would stop the city’s pork barrel spending.
About the Author
Aaron Goldstein writes from Boston, Massachusetts.
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Melvin| 2.24.10 @ 7:32AM
My mind is in a turmoil. Cambridge, PETA, and the other various eco goons who do not want us to eat meat, and are doing everything in their power to make sure that comes about.
Sierra Club, friends of the earth, and their brand of eco thuggery don't want us to do anything with the land. No farming, no gardens, and living in urban roach motels that contains humans to cities.
PETA doesn't want us to eat meat, Sierra Club doesn't want us to graze, then someone please inform this inquiring mind, just what the hell are we supposed to eat?
Copyleft| 2.24.10 @ 8:30AM
Your turmoil stems from the fact that you've convinced yourself of a lie, Melvin, rather than facing facts.
The Sierra Club has never suggested--not once--that farming and gardens are 'evil' or 'off-limits.'
http://www.sierraclub.org/goals/
Melvin| 2.24.10 @ 8:47AM
Your telling me to face the facts, pleeeaaasssseee. Thats surely calling the kettle black isn't it?
alarm1201| 2.24.10 @ 9:44AM
Melvin,
Let my try politely correcting you without the snide arrogance that CopyLeft shows.
The Sierra Club is against modern forms of farming - what it calls factory or industrial farms.
http://newyork.sierraclub.org/.....Report.pdf
The Sierra Clubbers are environmental wackos but not that wacko:).
Melvin| 2.24.10 @ 2:12PM
Oh heck, I have a thick skin. Its a paradox. One side says don't eat meat, and other side don't walk on the grass.
So what in the heck are we supposed to do?
tj| 2.24.10 @ 1:49PM
just what the hell are we supposed to eat?
That's the point they don't want us to eat so we die, abort more babies and have the Utopian world they alsways dreamed of
C-heston| 2.24.10 @ 8:48PM
Soylent Green?
Alan Brooks| 2.24.10 @ 8:57PM
"Soylent green is people!"
So we have come full circle.
Bram| 2.24.10 @ 7:33AM
"The climate emergency" Uh, they might want to catch up on the news before they try to save us all.
FabFour| 2.24.10 @ 7:35AM
Fish and Finger Pie from lyrics in "Penny Lane" is not cuisine,but rather a sexual reference. Check out the Liverpudlian colloquialisms for verification.
Alan Brooks| 2.24.10 @ 8:59PM
Right, the "finger" in question is a clitoris.
but How boring it has become.
Alan Brooks| 2.24.10 @ 8:59PM
Right, the "finger" in question is a clitoris.
but How boring it has become.
Doorgunner| 2.24.10 @ 7:40AM
Two points:
First, the Catholic church has always had a "meatless" day of the week. People in the Boston area, I think know this... Hmm, why didn't they just go with "no meat on Friday", I wonder...
Second, this is the locality that gave us Matt Damon...
And the only word/phrase that comes to mind now is that which was famously uttered, recently, by Rahm Emmanuel.
Flatdog| 2.24.10 @ 9:00AM
Umm... Point of Order: The Catholic Church gave up on meatless Fridays (except for Good Friday) after Vatican II in 1969. Even then, fish was eaten instead, which is not what those of militant vegan tendencies have in mind, I'm sure. Hmm... Pondering on the methane/AGW question - do fish fart?
Nanagram6| 2.24.10 @ 9:47AM
I don't know about fish, but when my dog farts it doesn't melt snow, it cetainly does make our eyes water and we have to evacuate the room.
Patrick| 2.24.10 @ 8:47PM
Actually, you are incorrect. The abstinence of meat on Friday was never abrogated.
However, a Catholic may eat meat on a Friday provided said Catholic performs an alternate form of penance in its stead.
Of course, the "kumbaya" crowd made sure to keep quiet about that part.
Patrick| 2.24.10 @ 8:51PM
Liberals abhor anything that could possibly be correlated with Jesus Christ. I suppose they share a special bond with the demonically possessed in that regard.
Robert Pinkerton| 2.24.10 @ 8:44AM
Once upon a time, at an SF con (science fiction convention), I heard a joke about vegans being people so alienated that they took out -- or wanted to take out -- citizenship in an extraterrestrial political entity! (Reference is to the star Vega, visible in the southern hemisphere.) Since then, I have racked my brains for the exact wording of that joke, to no avail. Though this is a stab in the dark, perhaps someone here might know the joke, and be kind enough to post its exact phrasing.
Thank you.
Tim| 2.24.10 @ 9:00AM
Gas-less Tusedays!
Football-less Sundays!
White cop-less Wednesdays!
Freedom-less Fridays!
Great ideas all.
The hybridization of puritanism and socialism.
Richard Baker| 2.24.10 @ 9:32AM
Why not Foodless Days? Then all the wackos would be truly happy. William F. Buckley, Jr. was correct about the first 400 in the Boston phone book.
FabFour:
I too was surprised that the author of this article was unknowing about Fish and Finger Pie. Sir Paul would laugh hard if he read this column.
WJ| 2.24.10 @ 9:35AM
This is an awesome idea and the Cambridge Lords (I mean city council) should be encouraged to implement this as a law.
A suggestion would be to extend this law on meat-less Monday's to individuals in their own homes. Anyone eating meat on Monday could be arrested and jailed and sent to a vegan prison.
Matt Morehouse| 2.24.10 @ 9:43AM
Most restaurants close one day a week. Would that be Mondays in Cambridge?
The west coast equivalent of Cambridge is Arcata Ca. You can look it up but don't bother visiting, you won't enjoy the experience.
c. j. acworth| 2.24.10 @ 9:46AM
I look forward to a trip to Cambridge and a hearty meal at Frank's Tofu House.
EricTheRed | 2.24.10 @ 9:54AM
Global warming alarmism has been described by many as a religion. Given that comparison -- which is correct, in my view -- enforcing "meatless Mondays" would be no different from enforcing the Catholic rule of meatless Fridays. Except if Catholics actually tried that, the leftist meatheads in Cambridge at the front of the line screaching "Separation of Church and State!" "Don't impose your religion on me!" The hypocrisy is astounding.
http://VocalMinority.typepad.com
The Jewish Republican's Web Sanctuary
Tony in Central PA| 2.24.10 @ 12:29PM
The religious comparisons on this issue have come up many times. The whole thing smacks of a subculture that has so supressed its religious instincts that they start erupting in strange ways.
In the case of ecopuritans, sex is a regulated behavior as well. Note that the actual purpose of sex has been discredited because the world is overpopulated, so a person can be as sexually profligate as possible, but as long as he is a childless, vegan locovore, he is " good ".
Tim| 2.24.10 @ 10:05AM
"the Cambridge Climate Congress" is what?
Six skinny nasty old pot smoking vegans?
lwestin | 2.24.10 @ 10:30AM
Our family has two 'Catholic' meatless days a week. It wasn't abandoned, as the Vatican II mythology goes. Meatless fridays during lent and fasting on Ash Wed. and Good Friday. Other days of sacrifice by way of abstinence and fast are recommended. Still.
I have to say that my 6 sons produce more gas on bean days than on chicken days. The girls are never gaseous, of course!
Petronius| 2.24.10 @ 10:38AM
I was asked to consider a vegetarian diet. I told the twit, I can't eat a whole one at one sitting.
Do hear The Reluctant Cannibal by the late Michael Flanders. Meanwhile the zealots of their number should commune with a school of piranha.
PolishKnight| 2.24.10 @ 10:43AM
EricTheRed, the concept of a "religion" is a secular construct to begin with that differentiates between "personal belief" and state "facts". In 1500AD, er, 1500CE, it wasn't a "religious belief" that witches flew on broomsticks. It was a _fact_ and there was no conflict between church and state.
Leftism, and the apocalyptic dogma of Global Warming, are just going back to basics even as they bash modern religions based upon similar tactics back then!
Anthony| 2.24.10 @ 10:56AM
I have a suggestion for the cutting edge literary elite and enviro- nutjob denizens of Cambridge. Once a month, have the townfolk gather at the town center to act out Shirley Jackson's " The Lottery". However, instead of just one person, choose 20 a month to be stoned to death, (the old fashioned way, with real rocks, not the aging hippie way).
This will be a real chance for Cambridge to lead the way and demonstrate its committment to reducing carbon footprints.
The rest of us will happily watch, while gorging on chicken wings and beer.
Melvin| 2.24.10 @ 2:15PM
So Anthony, ummm, they have a allot rocks in Cambridge?
Stop by the zoo maybe, and bring up some hungry lions.
uncle curmudgeon| 2.24.10 @ 5:05PM
I've always thought of this sort of nonsense as a form of gray-market polling undertaken by assorted leftist outfits to determin just how many morons there are out there at any given time. Remember throwing birdseed at weddings so as to prevent exploding bird syndrome? How about all of those twits who schlepp their bio-degradable satchels to market lest they destroy the planet by fetching the goods home in one of the merchant's handy plastic sacks? Around here you can tell where the afflicted live by the purple "WAGE PEACE" signs in the front yard. How one exactly does that the inhabitants can never say. Whenever I see one of these signs I always imagin thousands of Quakers wading waist-deep from their LCIs (LCQ?) and storming the beaches of the Gaza Strip, overwelming PLO and Hamas thugs with empathy.
Yes we can| 2.24.10 @ 4:06PM
By implementing a meatless day, would mean that less animals are slaughtered, which means more animals passing gas, further contributing to the emission of green house gases. So if animals passing gas is contributing to "global warming", shouldn't we make sure there are less live animals farting? Sure would be a shame not to eat them. The logic of these idiots baffles all logic.
Patrick| 2.24.10 @ 9:00PM
The really strange part is once meat is declared "Verboten", it will become that much more alluring. Any simpleton who lives near a high school could figure that one out.
Omicron| 2.24.10 @ 5:27PM
Just when you think liberals can't get any stupider.... what's in that designer water that they drink?
Patrick| 2.24.10 @ 9:02PM
Oh, I am thinking a 2:1 dose of pot to brown acid.
Stan Redmond| 2.24.10 @ 6:07PM
As a vegetarian I love these few sayings.
"If God wanted us to be vegetarians why did he make animals out of meet"
"There's room for all of God's creatures, right next to the mashed potatoes"
"Save a tree eat a beaver"
"Vegetarian translates to "bad hunter" in Sioux"
Patrick| 2.24.10 @ 9:03PM
If vegetarians eat veggies, what do humanitarians eat?
Joseph| 2.24.10 @ 7:18PM
These people are idiots. They should Google "Lierre Keith" and read what comes up, thoroughly.
the permanent newbie| 2.25.10 @ 7:11PM
On your recommendation, I just did. Oh wow. Crazy beyond crazy. Would love to make some popcorn and watch vegans' heads explode as they tried to square the circle she casts for them...
Christopher Holland| 2.24.10 @ 8:16PM
Don't these Harvard people know that global warming is the biggest scientific fraud in history? There is no evidence at all of global warming, let alone whether it is caused by man. Typical liberals - they do not know what they are talking about, they are trying to fix a problem that does not exist. These people are not smart.
Franklin| 2.24.10 @ 8:17PM
Which group was that - the one that wanted us to eat our pets?
I don't eat a lot of meat just because I can't afford most of the good stuff and I refuse to eat Spam. But if someone told me I COULDN'T eat meat - well, throw a cow on the barbie, I'm havin' a party!
Damn if anyone tells me what I can and can't eat.
FlatEarth| 2.24.10 @ 11:19PM
Have you ever considered that the proponents of "meatless Mondays" may be the franchise owners of fast food joints just outside the jurisdiction.