Us folks at the Upper Valley Free Press welcome all opinion even if it disagrees with our palate! - Editor

To those who are in to making New Year resolutions to improve their health and well-being, I have a suggestion. How about resolving to have one meatless day per week? By meatless I mean vegetarian ˆ not just switching from meat to fish. If you are already doing one meatless day per week, then why not increase it to two, and so on. Any reduction of meat eating will be a plus for your health, the environment, world hunger, and the treatment of animals. How‚s that for a list of positive spin-offs?

Maybe I should also add peace of mind‚ to that list. According to CDC estimates, each year in the U.S. there are 2 million cases of illness per year from campylobacter (a bacteria associated with raw or undercooked poultry), 32,000 illnesses due to salmonella poisoning, and 2500 illnesses (resulting in 500 deaths) due to listeria monocytogenes (a bacteria found in ready-to-eat lunch meat and hotdogs).

All of these food-borne diseases come from contaminated foods that are most often animal in origin, such as beef, poultry, milk or eggs. Now, with the arrival of mad cow disease into the U.S. and ineffective laws banning the use of sick animals from food and other products, there is no better time to reduce meat consumption.

Happy New Year and bon appetit!