The Vancouver Humane Society recently joined forces with other Canadian Meatless Monday advocates, including EarthSave Canada, to contribute to an exciting new online cookbook. “Meat-Free Monday Everywhere” brings together leaders in the Meatless Monday movement from around the globe, with each country submitting a meatless recipe representative of their corner of the world.
With no shortage of cruelty-free recipes out there, the process of narrowing it down to THE Canadian dish was no easy feat. In the end, it was Vancouver writer Eleanor Boyle’s personal recipe, a Potato and Carrot Salad with Garlic-Mustard Dressing, which would represent Canadian meatless cuisine on the international scene. The ingredients in this salad are all from hardy plants that grow well in our temperate climate. Canada produces significant quantities of mustard, potatoes, carrots, kale, lentils and the other ingredients found in this salad. The recipe contains familiar and nutritious ingredients, plus a delicious vinaigrette that includes a touch of Canadian maple syrup.
The Meat-Free Monday Everywhere cookbook showcases not only the delicious variety of meatless meal options to choose from, but also the impressive growth of the Meatless Monday movement. Active in over 30 countries, the movement is raising awareness of the impact that reducing/eliminating meat consumption has on animal welfare, our health and the environment.
Over 700 million animals are killed for food every year in Canada, and our over-consumption of cheap meat has forced nearly all of them into factory farms, where they endure conditions and practices that most Canadians find appalling. Reducing and eliminating meat consumption and incorporating more plant-based proteins in our diet has health benefits, including protecting against heart disease, stroke, and cancer, reducing our risk for diabetes, curbing obesity and improving the nutritional quality of diet.
If all of these benefits weren’t enough, plant-based eating is also much kinder to the planet. Animal agriculture is a major contributor not only to climate change, but to air and water pollution, water use, land degradation and deforestation, biodiversity decline, and ocean degradation. In fact, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation sector. It takes far more resources to farm living animals who eat plants than it does to simply eat plant-based ourselves.
With all of this in mind, we encourage you to join us in standing up for animals every time you sit down to eat! Check out the online cookbook online cookbook for some delicious recipes and don’t forget to take the Meatless Monday pledge for a free weekly recipe to help you in your commitment to protecting animals, your health and the planet.
