Let It Beef
After the underwhelming appointments of Van Rompuy and Ashton, the European Parliament was treated to some traffic stopping star power as Sir Paul McCartney came to speak at an event organised by Edward MacMillan-Scott, entitled “Less Meat = Less Heat”.
The former Beatle was there to publicise a campaign for a “meat free Monday”, saying that “we can all make a contribution to fighting global warming by eating less meat” and said that having a meat free day was something that people could do, “people can find out about this and can just try not to have meet one day a week. It’s not hard. going vegetarian is a lot harder for people as it needs passion.” He suggested that the beginning of the week was a good place to start because “most people have a blowout at the weekend so Monday’s a good time to do it.”
MacMillan-Scott said they were “focusing on the issue that wasn’t on the Copenhagen agenda as highly as it should be; the fact that livestock production produces more greenhouse gasses than the whole of the transport sector. When asked if he trusted the Americans to play a real role at Copenhagen to reduce carbon emissions, Sir Paul replied, “Of course. I think this issue is going to affect everyone and in Copenhagen, I’m not sure how much can be done but I want to make people aware of what people can do and there are many Americans involved in the Meat free Monday.”
The issue of EU agriculture was raised and McCarthy suggested that bodies such as the Parliament could educate and encourage people to eat less meat whilst helping farmers adapt to the changes. He said that he wished that his views on global warming were wrong but felt that the issue was real and that change was vital to saving the planet for the next generation.
Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also pointed out that using farming land for cultivation would be more effective at providing food for an increasing number of people and could assist in lifting people out of poverty. more controversially, he suggested that taxation could be a mechanism to encourage lower meat consumption as that approach “would make a lot of sense”.
And then Sir Paul left as he arrived, in a flurry of photographs, autographs, waving and much sighing from the women of the Parliament.
