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By Kristina Chew<\/a><\/p>\n Here’s the Norwegian army’s plan to fight climate change: have everybody go meatless<\/a> once a week.<\/p>\n Norwegian troops will be eating vegetarian meals on Mondays to cut their consumption of ecologically unfriendly foods whose production contributes heavily to global warming. Spokesman Eystein Kvarving says<\/a> the plan is meant to be “a step to protect our climate” by serving food “that’s respectful of the environment.”<\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_313397\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"500\"] Norway’s 10,000 troops eat about 35,000 meals<\/a> a day, so the army foregoing meat could put a bit of a dent in the country’s overall meat consumption. The army alone consumes about 150 tons of meat a year.<\/p>\n Meat is a staple of most Norwegians’ diet with the average Norwegian eating more than 1,200 animals over the course of their life including 1,147 chickens, 22 sheep, six cattle and 2.6 deer. A 2005 report<\/a> found that only 1 percent to 2 percent of Norwegians are vegetarian.<\/p>\n The new culinary regimen already has been implemented on Norway’s main bases and will soon be introduced to all units, including those who are overseas; it’s hoped that doing so will reduce meat consumption by 330,000 pounds a year. The first Meatless Monday<\/a> was last week at the Rena military base 90 miles north of Oslo.<\/p>\n The response was positive<\/a>, said Pal Stenberg, a nutritionist and navy commander in charge of the catering division. As he comments, the soldiers “seemed to eat a lot of it until journalists asked, ‘You know it’s not meat in there?’ And then they said, ‘What?’”<\/p>\n Stenberg knows he’s up against a formidable enemy, the belief that eating meat is necessary to develop strength and stamina.<\/p>\n “It seems that people don’t think it’s possible to be an iron man as a vegetarian, it seems like they don’t think a good soldier can be a vegetarian, but we have a lot of soldiers who are vegetarian, so I know it’s possible,” he said. “We have to use a lot of effort in communicating both the environmental benefits and the health benefits.”<\/p>\n Stenberg acknowledges that the project could be a failure. For it to work, he says that soldiers must “understand why they should eat more environmentally friendly.”<\/p>\n The Future in Our Hands<\/a>, which originated in Norway and seeks to safeguard “the environment for future generations and a fair distribution of wealth globally” welcomed<\/a> the army’s announcement and praised the defense ministry for taking concrete actions to address environmental issues.<\/p>\n Norway’s military has already allotted 15 percent of its catering budget to organic <\/a>food, in keeping with national standards<\/a>. Serving vegetarian meals once a week is in many ways the next logical step. Karving emphasizes<\/a> that the decision to have the army eat vegetarian once a week is strictly in the interest of fighting climate change—not to save money—and being “more ecologically friendly and also healthier.”<\/p>\n The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates<\/a> that livestock supply chains account for nearly 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Imagine if the armed forces of a few more nations emulated Norway’s experiment?<\/p>\n![\"norwayfi\"](\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/norwayfi.jpg\")
<\/a> Norway’s troops eat 35,000 meals a day. Photo credit: U.S Department of Defense.[\/caption]\n
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