Johns Hopkins Helps Expand the Global Meatless Monday Movement
Reducing meat consumption is more important than ever in addressing some of the world’s most critical problems: the global burden of chronic preventable diseases, overuse of precious land and water resources, and the acceleration of climate change, which threatens our planet’s future.
The global Meatless Monday movement is one of the earliest, leading voices in advocating for and providing resources to support the reduction of meat consumption. Since its start in 2003 by The Monday Campaigns and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF), the movement has taken root in over 40 countries, and now includes Meat Free Monday, Green Monday and variations in 22 different languages.
The Monday Campaigns, The Center for a Livable Future and the Center for Communication Programs at Johns Hopkins partnered to create The Meatless Monday Global Platform to create a space for organizations to connect, share, and work together to grow the number of people who consume less meat for their health and the health of the planet. The project is part of a broader initiative to reduce global meat consumption by expanding the evidence-base describing the benefits of reducing high meat intake, engaging key global stakeholder groups in the practice, and creating communications materials to enable groups to easily implement Meatless Monday and other programs that reduce meat consumption.
The online community allows members to create organizational and individual profiles, participate in specialized Groups, contribute to news feeds, join forums and easily message others in the community. Groups are organized by regions, topic areas, practice areas, and organization type, making it easier for members to connect with like-minded people. As our community grows, we hope that members will identify additional common interests to establish new Groups.
The main Resource Center contains research briefs from Johns Hopkins as well as a selection of Meatless Monday creative material and implementation guides to help organizations start a program. The intention is that these resources will provide a starting point, and that other community members will add their ideas, research, and other resources to expand Meatless Monday and other strategies for reducing meat consumption around the world.
Current partners in developing the Meatless Monday Global Platform are:
