Solon pushes for Meatless Monday

CEBU, Philippines - To teach the students to include vegetables and fruits in their diet, Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Teddy Casiño filed House Bill 6311 promoting “Meatless Monday.”

The bill was filed in time for the celebration of the Nutrition Month this month.

It seeks to institutionalize a “Meatless Monday” in all elementary and secondary schools, whether public or private, where children will consume vegetables, giving importance to indigenous varieties, instead of meat.

This is to promote healthy living among the children and to contribute to the campaign to reduce greenhouse gases emission.

The policy shall be called “Luntiang Lunes Act of 2012”.

It was inspired by the Luntiang Lunes Motivational Campaign, founded by neuroscientist Dr. Custer C. Deocaris in 2003 as a nutrition and environmental drive, to address high meat consumption worldwide.

The Luntiang Lunes supporters previously estimated that if each of the 25.7 million students would practice a Meatless Monday, the same carbon dioxide emission reduction rate will be benefited by the environment as when 94,392 cars are taken off the road or planting 12.35 million trees.

Casiño highlighted in the bill various studies showing that Filipinos are meat lovers and have the lowest per capita intake of vegetables in the world. He also mentioned a 2008 study by the Department of Science and Technology - Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) showing that the Philippines suffers from severe double disease burden, childhood malnutrition and adult obesity.

Casiño subscribes to the idea of targeting the children for dietary change so they can develop the habit of eating vegetables at an early age. He believes that children will not learn from theories alone but they have to practice it. 

Under the proposed bill, the Department of Education (DepEd) is directed to order the public and private elementary and high schools to exclusively serve plant-based meals in the cafeterias every Monday.

The children though may opt not to buy from the cafeteria and may just bring meals from home to school regardless of what type of food they bring. No students will be forced to buy from the canteen.

There will be an inter-agency committee to be created to oversee its proper implementation. The inter-agency committee shall comprise of the DepEd, Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, DOST-FNRI, together with non-government organization such as Luntiang Lunes Inc. and the Nutritionist-Dietitian’s Association of the Philippines. — (FREEMAN)