Green Monday Q and A

What is Green Monday?

Green Monday is an easy, flexible and fun way to make a positive difference. Eat and serve plant-based meals (no eggs, no meat, no dairy) on Mondays to help animals, improve health, and lessen impact on the environment. Other green activities are also encouraged, such as cutting down on food waste.

It’s about making a difference now, one green meal at a time, so that we foster a great life for future generations who will be impacted by the consumption choices we make today.

Why is Green Monday important?

The animal agriculture sector is a key contributor to climate change, water pollution and water use. Cutting down on meat, egg, and dairy consumption can mitigate our environmental impact, whilst safeguarding our health. Studies have found that those who eat plant-based diets tend to have a lower risk of obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Adopting Green Monday also helps animals. More than 1 billion land animals were raised for food in South Africa in 2013 alone.  More than 95 percent of egg-laying hens and more than 50 percent of pregnant sows spend nearly their entire lives in cages or crates, where they are unable to exercise, fully extend their limbs, or engage in many other important natural behaviours.

Green Monday also addresses some of the world’s most serious environmental problems. The animal agriculture sector makes up 29 percent of global agriculture water requirements. An average of 4,323 litres of water is required to produce 1kg of chicken, whereas less than half of that is needed to produce 1kg of cereals. By 2023, it is projected that 33 percent of the world’s population will live in areas of absolute water scarcity, including South Africa.

Why launch Green Monday in South Africa?

The majority of growth in animal agriculture, particularly industrial animal agriculture, is already taking place in developing and emerging economies, posing significant threats to the environment, human health, and the welfare of all animals.  

Sub-Saharan Africa has also begun to rapidly industrialize its food and farming sector, but there is still time to change course and move in a more sustainable direction.  

Who can go green and eat green on Green Monday?

Anyone and everyone – including individuals, governments, private companies and groups working on food and sustainability issues.

What is the Green Monday vision for the South African marketplace?

To help create a marketplace that provides food that enchants the palette, promotes better policies for animal welfare, and lessens our environmental footprint. Green Monday is a perfect solution to those three goals. By creating a more sustainable, animal-friendly, and waste-friendly marketplace, businesses will prosper, public health will improve, and there will be a decrease in the number of animals suffering on factory farms.

What does it mean when I pledge to Green Monday?

It means making socially and environmentally responsible choices, particularly by eating plant based and decreasing consumption of eggs, meat, and dairy products.  

When South Africans sign on to Green Monday, they make a statement about the kind of world they want to live in and leave to their children. That world is much healthier, cleaner, and more humane.

What are benefits of eating plant based?

•    Plant-based foods are delicious and easy to prepare.  
•    It can be more cost effective than meat-centric meals.
•    You could improve the health and future of the earth one meal at a time. By switching to plant-based foods on Green Monday you’ll actually be reducing your carbon footprint! That’s because plant-based foods tend to use less water, require less land for production, and emit fewer greenhouse gases than the production of animal products.
•    Plant-based diets are healthy.

How do I eat green if I can’t cook?

You can order in or eat out while going green too. Indian, Thai and Mexican spots are usually very good at making delicious plant based dishes.

How can I help?

Make a difference:

•    Eating green and taking the Green Monday pledge today! Reduce your intake of plant based products.
•    Learn more about Green eating at greenmonday.co.za, and spread the word by giving talks and   distributing information at your school, office, place of worship, or other places in your community.  
•    Encourage retailers, schools, restaurants & hotels to increase their offerings of delicious, healthy plant-based foods.
•    Further the conversation on animal welfare, sustainability, and equity within the food system.  Ask your food retailer if their eggs are sourced from cage-free or free range farms and if their pork is sourced from crate-free suppliers.
•    Support small, emerging farmers practicing more animal welfare friendly and sustainable agriculture.
•    If your institution, organization, or company would like to help, contact Green Monday to find out how to become a partner! We’ll send you lots of tips on ways to promote Green eating and how to implement Green Monday at your organization.

Visit www.greenmonday.co.za like GreednMondaySA on Facebook and follow @GreenMondaySA on Twitter #GreenMondaySA.

Who has already signed on as Green Monday partners?

Fry’s Family Foods, Truth Coffee Roasting, Green Peace Africa, Beauty Without Cruelty, Hungry Herbivore, Baboon Matters Trust, Soil For Life, GRASS Consumer Food Action, Plant, SAFCEI and Greyton Transition Town.

Additional partners are invited to contact us and further the conversation on animal welfare, sustainability, and equity within the food system.

Which SA celebrities and chefs have endorsed Green Monday?

Chef Kamini Pather, Justin Bonello, Braam Malherbe, Natalie Becker, Siv Ngesi, Ewan Strydom, Nicole Flint, Armand du Plessis, Vanessa Haywood, Anji Woodley, Tamerin Jardine and Stevie French.

How is Green Monday different to Meatless or Meatfree Monday?

Eating Meat-free on Mondays – choosing plant-based foods over animal source foods – is a key component of Green Monday.  In fact we work very closely with a number of groups around the world, including in South Africa on Meatless Mondays or Meat-free Mondays, and many of HSI’s own campaigns, particularly in the Americas are called Meatless Monday.  

But in many places, including in South Africa, there is already a growing green consciousness and an active green movement.  If you look at the work of Green Monday partners in South Africa – Greenpeace, SAFECI and others – you can see that some exciting conversations are already taking place about sustainability and conscious consumption.  

Green Monday allows us to merge and broaden these conversations — allowing people to link a number of habits that are good for their health, animals, and the planet.  And while going green encompasses a much broader range of practices than just meat reduction, plant-based eating is critical to being green.  According to the food and agriculture organization, animal agriculture is one of the most significant contributors to our most serious environmental problems – from water scarcity to climate change.  

How is eating green healthy?

Nutrition experts around the world advocate eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to improve overall health and prevent disease.

Worldwide, an increasing number of people suffer from obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. Many of these chronic diseases can be prevented, treated, and in some cases reversed with a plant-based diet.

Experts say that three percent of early deaths could be prevented each year if people ate under 20 grams of processed meat a day.

How does this relate to the South African market?

In South Africa, nearly 30 percent of men and 56 percent of women are either overweight or obese.

Many developing countries with high levels of hunger and malnutrition now simultaneously bear the burden of an obesity-related public health crisis, including South Africa.