Great American Meatout Day

Great American Meatout Day is annual celebrated the first day of spring. The first Great American Meatout Day was in 1985.

About Meatout

Meatout is an international event that introduces the public to the benefits of plant-based foods, and promotes the availability and alternatives to meat and dairy in grocery stores, restaurants and food service establishments. Meatout is published from 1985 and is coordinated annually by FARM, a national, not-for-profit organization. FARM advocates a plant-based (vegan) diet to save animals, protect the environment and improve health.

Meatout has grown into the world's largest dietary education campaign every year. Participants have been asked to eliminate their meat-eating habits on March 20 every year (meaning first day of spring) and get a healthy diet with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

The benefits of meatout

"The habit of kicking meat" brings long-term benefits to consumer health, world hunger, resource conservation, environmental quality and animal protection.

Kicking Meat habits helps us to reduce our risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and other chronic diseases that paralyze and kill nearly us 1.4 million Americans every year.

The habit of kicking meat increases our energy levels, reduces our food budget and simplifies food preparation and cleanup.

The habit of kicking meat helps to preserve our topsoil, water and other sources of food production, which is essential for the survival of our children and their offspring.

Kicking the meat habit will protect forests, grasslands and other wildlife habitats.

Kicking the meat habit prevent animals from being confined, crowded, deprived, drugged, mutilated, and painfully handled and slaughtered. Each person who adopts a plant-based diet saves more than 80 innocent animals each year. During a lifetime, an individual can save more than 6,000 animals just by going vegan.

History of Great American Meatout Day

Since 1985, Meatout has gradually become the largest annual dietary education campaign all over the world. Great American Meatout Day promotes us to have a meat-free diet in order to improve our health, protect the environment and animals.

Millions of vegetarians on a meat-free diet is a wonderful evidence in order to prove that their diet can provide the essential nutrients and protein people need to live. They cite studies that show vegetarians have a reduced risk of developing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and other chronic diseases.

Every year, Meatout will receive the support of a broad coalition of environmental and animal-focused nonprofits, plant-based food companies, and elected officials from around the country and countless individuals.

Whether it is Beyoncé launching a vegan food delivery service or the world's richest man Bill Gates funding a Hampton Creek factory-based startup, one thing is clear: Veganism is on the way to become mainstream. A glance through the aisles of most supermarkets nowadays will realize an amazing variety of available foods to vegans.

Although the site promotes full veganism, vegans sensitively advice “beginners” or “want to go vegan” sometimes say, “Our diet is too meat-focused. It takes a long time so abrupt transitions will be difficult and we don't want to see you fail at it. Think about this: If, to start with, you only ate meat every day that would cut your intake in half! "

Some science points to factory farming as a major cause of global warming, considering the billions of commercially farmed animals worldwide that are destined to be a snack or an important part of the world's food in every breakfast, lunch and dinner. Millions of square miles of land is set aside to raise livestock, or feed them, when that land can be used more efficiently to grow grains and vegetables directly for humans.

Factory ranchers show they are especially worried when journalists and videographers visit their barns and slaughterhouses. They simply do not want the public to know the suffering they create for the animals they raise, nor do the resources, such as water, food and energy that they need to produce a healthy weight. And they certainly don't want consumers informed about the massive amounts of hormones and antibiotics used in animals to keep them from getting sick (and entering the human body), as well as methane and animal waste into the environment. Processed and preserved meat manufacturers use real pharmacology of chemicals to package products that will sit on the shelves for weeks or months after leaving the factory.

There are many meanings of what “no meat” is. For example, some vegans will consume eggs, dairy products and honey, arguing that although these are animal products, they do not kill animals. Others will avoid meat, but eat seafood, although most seafood sold in the United States is also farm-raised and has additives and forged genes.

In some parts of the world, a diet that does not include meat or seafood at all is almost unthinkable. For example, in the far northern regions, the growing season is short. In traditional cultures, there may not be a well-stocked market anywhere within reach. And island nations are surrounded by oceans rich in protein. Even in the United States today, in the dense urban poor neighborhoods known as "food deserts," fresh vegetables are rarely seen or of substandard quality.

For the workforce involved in the meat and seafood industries, the transition away from animal consumption is clearly not going to happen overnight: As new eating habits develop, workers have retrained for a new job. It's also part of the social equation as societies move towards renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. With their political will, nothing is impossible for us.

While it is difficult to envision a universal, completely animal-free diet in the near future and perhaps never has, for many people around the world, Great American Meatout offers an opportunity to explore options. A healthier dietary alternative would also greatly reduce animal warmth and suffering.

How to celebrate Great American Meatout Day

Great American Meatout Day is celebrated globally on March 20 every year. Animal welfare organization, named Farm Animal Rights Movement, launches the campaign, educates about the knowledge relating the health, environmental and ethical benefits of living cruelty-free for all people. Organizers encourage people to try going vegan, saying that simply avoiding animal products for two days will save 28 animals and 190,000 gallons of water a year. According to Meatout.org, completely eliminating animal products from your diet saves 200 animals, 1.3 million gallons of water, and 53,000 square feet of rainforest annually. In 2013, the campaign showed their target to collect about 25,000 pledges through outreach events, food samples and word of mouth.