Date	Topic
9 September	NO MEETING
14 October	Biochar and Carbon Negative Cooking A talk and practical demonstrations of the many uses of biochar by Carbon Farmers. Come along to see a Tawi stove in action.
11 November	Food Savvy Talk by Emma Stuart, Worcestershire County Council, about food and other waste.
9 December	Have a Greener Christmas and Still Have Fun! Information, ideas and activities to enjoy Christmas whilst protecting the planet. Plant-based recipes and tasters, craft activities, how to use Wyre Forest Freegle and more.
13 January	Bewdley District Heating Scheme Transition Bewdley will explain how the District Heating Scheme will use heat from the River Severn.
10 February	Visit to EnviRecover, Hartlebury A rare opportunity to see inside the huge EnviRecover plant where the County’s waste is diverted from landfill and used to generate electricity. There is no charge, but places are limited and must be booked in advance.
10 March	Hot Topics Why is chocolate in crisis? How is the local insect population changing? What are the consumer myths to ditch in 2025? A pot-pourri of short presentations (5-20 minutes) and discussions on a range of topics related to climate change. Offers of contributions to the agenda are welcome.
14 April	How to Create a Meadow The group has been following Wilson Wall’s progress in transforming an over-grazed field into a wildlife meadow. Wilson will provide an update on progress. We will also be making preparations for a group visit in May.
12 May	Visit to Wildlife Meadow Following on from his talk in April, Wilson will show us around his meadow which is on the outskirts of Kidderminster. This visit is timed to see Yellow Rattle in flower. Help will be provided with plant identification.
9 June	The Nature of Wyre Rosemary Winnall will provide a celebration of the wildlife of a special ancient woodland. This will be a public meeting as part of SustFest 2025.
14 July	Visit to Wyre Forest Following on from Rosemary’s talk in June, we will visit part of the Wyre Forest. Details of location and focus for the visit to be decided at the June meeting based on members’ interest after Rosemary’s talk.
August	No meeting

My Meatless Day

It's my meatless day,
My meatless day
I'm not going to eat,
any sort of meat, meat, meat, meat
I'm thin and I’m pale, ‘cos all I've had today, is:-
Four quarts of mussels, five loaves of bread,
Seven tins of salmon and a big cod's head,
Nine pairs of kippers and I feel half dead,
'Cos it's my meatless day.

Part of a Cockney Music Hall song from the First World War when there were campaigns in the UK and USA to eat less meat to aid the war effort. But is the idea of a ‘Meatless Day’ something we should harness today in our fight against Climate Change?

It’s probably never been as easy as it is now for individuals or families to adopt a healthy meat-free or even vegan diet. Vegan restaurants are on the rise and there are vegan or vegetarian options on the menus of most food outlets. Supermarket chains have responded by developing vegan alternatives to a wide range of items such as crisps, wine, sausages and ready meals to name but a few.

There have been several arguments used for persuading people to adopt a plant-based diet. The most obvious ones are concerns for animal welfare and animal rights but there are also claims that a plant-based diet is healthier. Another major argument however and one which is increasingly adopted is the claim that a vegan diet is hugely beneficial to the climate. If this claim is supportable then it presents, of itself, an important and urgent reason why we should all consider eating less, meat in our diet.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations have produced a report entitled ‘Tackling Climate Change through Livestock’ (ref 1) and in it they state that the total emissions from Global Livestock are currently the equivalent of 7.1 Gigatonnes of Carbon Dioxide per year. This represents 14.5% of all anthropogenic Greenhouse gas emissions. 39% of this global amount is the result of enteric fermentation in ruminants.

The 7.1 Gigatonne global production of Greenhouse Gas can be divided as follows;

Cattle (raised for both meat and milk) account for about 65% of this amount.

Of this 65%;

                  beef                                                                            41%

                  dairy                                                                           20%   

                  others (including use for draught power etc)             4%

Pig meat                                                                                      9%

Chicken meat and eggs                                                               8%

Small ruminants                                                                           6%

Other poultry etc                                                                          

These figures would suggest that beef and dairy products are significant contributors towards excessive production of Greenhouse Gasses, a suggestion which is further supported by this visual from Poore and Nameck (2018) reported by the BBC (ref 2.).

 

 

Fig. 1. Kilograms of GHG emissions per serving of a range of foods.

(after Poore and Namecek 2018 – ref. 2.)

This graphic shows an average value and a range of values for Greenhouse Gas Emissions for each food stuff.

Of course we should also be prepared to take into account current diet and dietary trends in the UK before deciding whether a ‘Meatless Day’ in this country would make a significant contribution to the goal of reducing Global Greenhouse Emissions.

In her article for Global Horizons, Kara Wright points out that meat consumption in the UK peaked in 1979 and has been steadily decreasing since then (ref 3). There has also been a steady trend away from beef, pork and lamb in favour of chicken with the major part of that change happening from about 1980 onwards. If this trend were to continue then consumption of red meat would cease altogether by 2050!

 

Fig. 2. Proportion of meat consumed by average person in UK in 1974 and 2014

after ‘The Carbon Footprint of the UK’s Meat Consumption: A Review of Past Trends and a Projection to 2050’ (ref. 3)

A Guardian article reporting on the Waitrose Food and Drink report 2018/19 (ref 4) found that at that time more than 10% of Britons claimed to be vegetarian or vegan, whilst just over 20% claimed to be ‘flexitarian’ meaning they ate a largely plant-based diet supplemented with relatively small amounts of meat. Whilst this means that approximately 30% of the British population have made deliberate attempts to reduce meat consumption, the trend towards an exclusively plant-based diet in particular is much more prevalent in the younger age groups.

In this case, increasing the number of people in older age ranges who choose to deliberately reduce meat consumption could be seen as having a positive effect on the reduction of Greenhouse Gas production, and the adoption of a new ‘Meatless Day’ campaign by U3A members could be a laudable endeavour.

It's my meatless day,
My meatless day
I'm not going to eat,
any sort of meat, meat, meat, meat
I'm thin and I’m pale, ‘cos all I've had today, is:-
Five pounds of 'taters, that I had to thieve,
A vegetable marrow, as long as my sleeve,
A jar of pickled onions (you can tell it when I breathe)
'Cos it's my meatless day.

1.    The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations ‘Tackling Climate Change through Livestock’ 21st October 2014; updated 2020.

2.    Climate Change Food Calculator: What’s your diet’s carbon footprint? Stylianou, Guibourg and Briggs BBC News 9th August 2019

3.    GLOBAL HORIZONS  The Carbon Footprint of the UK’s Meat Consumption: A Review of Past Trends and a Projection to 2050 Kara Wright

4.    Third of Britons have stopped or reduced eating meat. Report by Rebecca Smithers, Consumer Affairs Correspondent. Guardian on-line. 1st November 2018.