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Edmonton council urged to go vegetarian at catered meetings

Beef prices not likely to drop any time soon

City councillors in Edmonton — the capital of Alberta cattle country — are being asked to buck the beef from catered council meetings.

The city’s youth council is bringing a motion to council this week to consider making council’s catered meals vegetarian.

The youth council themselves have gone vegan for their meetings.

The group, which aims to involve Edmonton youths in local government by allowing them to advise and offer feedback to council, says the meatless meals are more environmentally sustainable.

The vote this week will be whether to ask city administrators to prepare a policy for council to vote on at a later date – so Edmonton city councillors have some time before they stake the steak.

The youth council, which did not respond to a request for comment, says in its report to Edmonton councillors that one meal a month is not a drastic change in lifestyle.

But vegetarian and vegan meals have a significantly lower environmental impact than omnivorous meals, it argues.

Benefits of reducing meat consumption include water conservation, reduced carbon emissions and more efficient land use, says the report to be considered Tuesday.

“To be clear, we are not asking councillors to become vegetarians! Just choosing to eat vegetarian at catered #yegcc meetings,” the youth council says on its Twitter feed.

“Reducing your consumption of meat is one of the top ways to reduce your carbon footprint. Small changes make a big difference.”

Beef producers speak up

Rich Smith, executive director of the Alberta Beef Producers, takes issue with the youth council’s argument.

The province’s beef industry covers about 11.3 million hectares of grassland not suitable for growing food for human consumption, he says. Those grasslands sequester carbon and protect water quality, he counters.

And cattle are fed grain typically not suitable for human consumption – an efficient and environmentally beneficial practice, Smith tells Yahoo Canada News.

“We support people having a choice and options for their dietary preferences but we do not support the premise that not eating meat will benefit our environment,” Smith says in an emailed statement. “Meat production has an impact as all food production does. The only difference? Choosing Alberta Beef is choosing to eat local.”

Alberta accounts for 40 per cent of Canada’s beef cattle industry, bringing in $3.3 billion in revenues for the province last year.

The V word

There was a time when you could say vegetarian constituted a dirty word in the Prairie province.

In 1990, singer k.d. lang got herself banned from many Alberta radio waves for appearing in an anti-meat commercial by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

And in 1995, Calgary Mayor Al Duerr was forced to retract his public support for “official vegetarian month” following a public backlash.

But Alberta seems to be defying a lot of stereotypes these days.

The success of a vegan food truck and a couple of vegan restaurants in Edmonton made local news this year. There was also something about a provincial election.

In any event, it seems Edmonton will not be alone in ruminating on this issue.

Montreal city Coun. Alexander Norris congratulated the Edmonton Youth Council via Twitter and said he and colleague Marianne Giguerre plan to bring a similar motion to Montreal council.