ITALY’S ANIMAL RIGHTS GROUP LAV PROPOSES A MORE HUMANE ITALIAN STYLE VEGETARIAN MEAL

An appeal by the Italian animal rights group, Lav, was made over the holidays to cut animal consumption during festivities and it proposed an entirely vegetarian menu as an alternative.

“The Christmas holidays” – explained Roberta Bartocci, the head of the vegetarian sector of Lav – “represents an ideal occasion to choose a vegetarian menu in order to safeguard one’s health, the environment and the lives of many animals, and all of this without renouncing taste, and even saving”. Bartocci pointed out how a vegetarian menu could, in fact, even help out in terms of economic saving when, “considering that a meat or fish-based second course has an average cost of 15 euros per kilo while it costs just a few euros to create a superb vegetarian second course”.
According to Lav, those who choose a vegetarian diet (about 9.5% of Italians according to the latest Ac Nielsen survey), help save the lives of at least 20 animals each year, as well as improving their own health. At least one billion animals are slaughtered every year to feed 20% of the human population. Intensive animal farming is also responsible for a large part of the greenhouse gases that are currently emitted. They represent a very inefficient way of cultivating the land, if it is considered, for example, that a harvest destined for animal raising ultimately offers one-thirtieth the amount of protein that could be reaped from soy cultivation for direct consumption.

Therefore, it’s best for many reasons to make and eat a meal based on vegetables, pasta, legumes, and sweets: things like toasted bread with a blended bean sauce topped with truffles, followed by tagliatelle with cream, lemon and black pepper, green and yellow garbanzo listelle with a red sauce, leek torte, oreccheitte with garbanzo and saffron, or straccetti made of seitan with rucola. And to finish it all off, the traditional panettone is still a valid and delicious dessert.