Dear Transition Nottingham member/supporter
The TN suppport group has been approached to ask if our organisation would like to sign up to a letter requesting Nottingham City Council to promote a 'meat free day' in the city.
The city of Ghent in Belgium has a similar scheme which is aimed at reducing fossil fuel dependence and carbon emissions, and promoting sustainability and animal welfare. The government's independent watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission has produced a report, "Setting the Table" (
http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/Setting_the_Table.pdf) which advises reducing the consumption of meat and dairy products.
Councillor Katrina Bull has expressed an interest in introducing a similar initiative in Nottingham. She has indicated that the best way forward is for pressure groups to join together and call on the council to take action.
This is the draft text of the letter:
1 January 2010
Dear Councillor Bull,
As part of a growing worldwide movement of individuals, communities and local government authorities, Nottingham's twin city, Ghent, has, for the past six months, adopted one day each week as a "Vegetarian Day", with the following aims:
· Protecting the environment
· Improving people's health
· Fighting against world hunger
· Promoting animal welfare
We are writing to ask that Nottingham City Council consider similarly declaring one day each week to be meat-free in order to recognise and combat the global impact of using animals for food. Such an initiative would encourage council employees, schools, businesses and Nottingham residents to opt for vegetarian meals one day per week, thereby promoting healthier and greener diets in the city.
The 2006 United Nations report Livestock's Long Shadow concluded that the meat industry causes more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the world's cars, trucks, planes, SUVs and ships combined. More recent figures from the World Watch Institute suggest that the meat industry is responsible for 51 per cent of all global greenhouse-gas emissions.
Nottingham's meat-free day would have other lasting effects beyond combating climate change. Because vegetarians are less prone to heart disease, certain types of cancer, strokes and obesity than meat-eaters are, the initiative would be helping citizens to live longer, healthier lives. Nottingham City's Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) in April 2009 found that health problems related to obesity of city residents are currently estimated to cost Nottingham City PCT £85.1M a year, and this figure is expected to rise to £94.4M by 2015 if measures are not taken to combat the problem.
Approximately 80 per cent of starving children live in countries that have food surpluses; the children go hungry because most grain is diverted to feed animals instead of people. In fact, 70 per cent of agricultural land on our planet is used for meat production. By pledging to go meat-free one day per week, Nottingham residents would be helping people in poorer countries. They would also be decreasing the number of animals who experience fear, pain and stress because of intensive farming practices.
Enclosed is a letter from Sir Paul McCartney and Dr Rajendra Pachauri calling on policymakers to tackle the over-consumption of meat in western countries. They emphasise the importance of the issue and suggest that governments develop initiatives to raise public awareness. Also enclosed is Setting the Table, a report published in December 2009 by the Sustainable Development Commission, the government's independent watchdog on sustainable development. The report advises reducing the consumption of meat and dairy products. Amid the growing understanding of the need for meat reduction and the recent international efforts at the Copenhagen climate talks, there has never been a more suitable time to launch a weekly meat-free day.
"Greening" our plates by eating delicious and healthy vegetarian food is an effective and inexpensive way to shrink our carbon footprint. Will you please lead by example and let us know if you will encourage Nottingham residents to go meatless one day a week?
Your reply can be addressed to Suzanne Barnard at the PETA Foundation, PO Box 36678, London SE1 1YE, UK or at SuzanneB@petaf.org.uk.
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours sincerely,
[Full list of signatories to be added] [/size]
Transition Nottingham, is of course not a pressure or campaign group. We are however committed to finding innovative ways to enable and encourage each other to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and increase the resilience of our city. A meat free day would be an example of a simple action that people to which people could commit.
The TN support group exists to serve the membership, but we do not decide policy, and therefore felt that we could not sign a letter to Councillor Bull on behalf of the membership.
However, as individuals we do support the idea, and would like to ask other members of TN if we should sign up as Transition Nottingham.
If members would prefer this not to happen, we need to know. Therefore if any of us have any reservations or objections, please could you email them to
gingecharlotte@onetel.com by 28th December (sorry for short notice, but the request needs to be made to the council in early January).
If we don't receive any objections, we will add TN to the list of supporters (others who haave been apporached include Animal Aid, Vegan Society, CIWF, Vegetarian Society, Greenpeace, Nottingham Veggies, Viva! IFAW, WSPA, Oxfam, Women’s Institute, Christian Aid, Tearfund, People & Planet, RSPB)
Thank you
TN Support group team.
