Meat free Lent Challenge

Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 March 2012 13:30

World Development Adviser to the Diocese of Sheffield, Dr Jackie Butcher, is urging people across the Diocese to eat less meat during Lent.

In a YouTube interview broadcast today on the Diocesan website (www.sheffield.anglican.org) Dr Butcher says: “Across most of the world eating meat is a luxury, a treat for special occasions. A fifth of the world’s people eat 46 per-cent of the world’s meat and a vegetarian diet is simply a much more efficient way of feeding the world.”

Dr Butcher also outlines some of the environmental problems eating meat can cause: “Meat production is associated with high levels of carbon pollution, it produces more methane, it requires more water and leads to rainforest clearance.”

She added: “Across the world, the amount of meat eaten is steadily rising and there isn’t enough land for everybody to eat the same amount of meat. It’s really about making sure we can feed the world.”

In the video, Dr Butcher stresses it is not only meat eaters who can join in the Lent Challenge but vegetarians also: “You can send in recipes to put up on our blog for Christians across the Diocese to share or you can invite your meat eating friends round for a meal and try and persuade them that meat free food can be delicious and exciting.”

In evaluating the main focus of the Lent Challenge, Dr Butcher says: “The Lent Challenge gives us a chance to travel in the same direction as a diocese. We won’t all be taking exactly the same steps, people start from different positions, but we are taking steps in the same direction towards a lower meat consumption and a more sustainable future.”