Meatless meetings: One city's government goes vegan one day a week
All of the Ron Swanson types (if there are any) in one California town's government likely are going to be disappointed with a resolution to exclusively serve vegan food at its facilities one day a week.
Swanson, the fictional city employee portrayed by Nick Offerman on the NBC show "Parks and Recreation," .
And if there are any hardcore "meatatarians," like Swanson, they have a new reason to hate coming into the office on Mondays (or another day of the week).
The "Green Mondays" resolution that Berkeley City Council passed resolved that all city-owned and city-managed facilities and programs "will provide only plant-based foods on Mondays (or another day of the week)."
Although the day of the week where Berkeley is going vegan isn't settled, city council's resolution states the municipality will offer only vegan food at all of their meetings.
The resolution was introduced by three council members to begin to address a resolution passed in June declaring a climate emergency and setting a goal for the city to be fossil-fuel free by 2030.
"Scientific analyses have shown that one of the most effective ways for a person to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions is to reduce or eliminate their consumption of meat and dairy," the resolution said. "By systematically reducing meat and dairy consumption, the citizens of Berkeley can accomplish two objectives; substantially reducing our collective greenhouse gas emissions and serving as a model for other municipalities across the country and around the world."
According to from the U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization, animal agriculture creates 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions that originate from human activity.