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.
