When ‘encourage vegan options for all’ was voted as the top action to make Vancouver the greenest city, I laughed it off because I didn’t think the city could legislate people’s eating habits. I agreed with the sentiment, but didn’t think the city could do anything beyond encouraging healthy eating habits in schools.
Well, there is an international initiative called Meatless Mondays, endorsed by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, that is encouraging people to give up meat once a week. They’ve managed to convince some cities, like Ghent, Belgium and San Francisco to officially endorse the initiative. Last week Whitehorse city council narrowly defeated a motion (by a vote of 4-3) which would have made them the first Canadian city to officially encourage Meatless Mondays. Maybe Vancouver can be the first.
Our goal is to help you reduce your meat consumption by 15% in order to improve your personal health and the health of the planet.
Canadian Veggie 
Wow, what a concept! I wonder what it would actually mean… discounts on veggie options on mondays?
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Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean anything. It “encourages” restaurants to offer more veggie options and consumers to eat less meat. No real incentives or regulations, at least not yet.
I think the Meatless Monday group has been partnering with restaurants and large organizations (with cafeterias) to ensure there are more meatless options on Mondays. That seems to be the real success of this program, not convincing cities to vote for it.
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