No Meat World Day

World Day for the Abolition of Meat

The 31 January 2009 will be the first World Day for the Abolition of Meat ever declared.

What does it mean and what will happen?

Local groups of activists will stage various events, with information stands, street leafletting, conferences, vegan dinners in restaurants, presentations, “mourning” demonstrations, photo exhibitions and nutrition pyramids in several cities in Europe and the rest of the world, in particular in France (Paris, Montpellier, Lille, Marseille, Besançon, Rennes, Millau - Aveyron, Metz, Mens, Die, and others), Italy (Milan and Florence), Switzerland, Germany, the Bahamas.

The purpose is to inform the public of how much suffering meat eating causes to non-human animals and how unnecessary it is to human beings.

A concerted effort of organizing events of the same kind in various parts of the globe is an effective way to draw the public attention to the subject.

The organizers’ intention is twofold: firstly to encourage vegetarianism and veganism as forms of boycotting the products of the animal farming industry, thus decreasing the demand for these products and as a consequence, as the market laws dictate, their supply; and secondly to explicitly request the abolition of meat production.

So the stress is both on the economic forces that are at the root of animal farming through the powerful means of consumers choice pressure and on the political and legal change.

The public are invited to reflect on this both as consumers and as citizens.