How’s your Flemish? Mine, it’s fair to say, is not very good. I’ve been through Brussels once, but that’s about my limit. I do know now, however, what the word ‘Veggiedag’ means. The reason for this?  The Belgian city of Ghent is introducing a regular meat free day for its civil servants and elected employees. It seems to be a voluntary affair (as I say, my translation is perhaps not the most accurate), but once a week, meat is off the menu. In September, the school children of the city will be doing the same thing.

When it comes to European countries, there’s a lot made of the nature of government intervention, and it’s impingement on personal freedoms and the like, and there’s certainly a case here to be made that questions what right an elected body has to tell individuals what they can and cannot eat. However, it seems as if the city counselors in Ghent have decided to take a lead on this and try to set an example.

There are some very good reasons for switching to a diet that contains less meat. I don’t want to bore you with the statistics (I’m sure you’re well capable of using Google), but eating less meat is healthier,  which impacts on the nation’s healthcare costs, including the number of days of work missed due to illness. Also, the UN has stated that nearly twenty percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions come from the process of livestock production.

Now, I know that it’s not realistic to ask people to change their diets overnight, just as it’s not realistic to ask people to stop driving entirely, or to stop using those outdoor heaters so they can have drinks outside in the middle of winter. Actually, scratch that, the last one, don’t do that. It’s ridiculous. Anyway, this is why I like this Ghent Veggiedag initiative so much (well, the name, too). It’s a government body trying to lead by example, to show people that they’re willing to make a stand themselves.

As such, I’d really like to see that happen over here in the US. How incredible would it be if the White House declared that for one day, they would be living a vegetarian lifestyle? It doesn’t even need to be a weekly thing, or a monthly one, or anything. But President Obama would be able to set an agenda without passing any legislation (surely a good thing), and at the very least, it would encourage ordinary Americans to think about the way that they eat, and the effects that their food has on the world around them. During his campaign, the President talked a lot about both global warming and personal responsibility; it would seem to me that this would be an ideal way of taking a lead in both.

I’ve always maintained that the best way to influence someone is not to hector someone, but let them see the way you live and be swayed by that; as such, I’d like to salute the city of Ghent and their Veggiedag. I just wish that they’d publish some of their information in French, as well as Flemish…