Soccer club bans red meat!

Just thought this was interesting. Especially with the brand new US food guidelines promoting a focus on plant based wholefoods & minimising meat, eggs etc. The comments are quite amusing...like the "How dare they try & force THEIR diet on us!" type comments...um, actually we have meat-based diet forced upon us all the time - we often go to meals, events or celebrations & find we have no choice, so actually we can't eat anything..at least a meat eater can eat a vegetable (& actually it's only red meat they are getting rid of, not all animal products), it does make me laugh how hard done by some of them seem to feel!

Quote :

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/article/31926/

Forest Green Rovers ban red meat
Fri Feb 11 10:20AM

Football fans at Forest Green Rovers will no longer be able to enjoy a half-time burger or beef pie after their vegan owner banned the sale of red meat from the ground.

Millionaire owner Dale Vince introduced a ban on red meat for his players at the Blue Square Premier club a few weeks ago but has now extended the ban to the fans inside the ground too.

The club's communications director Tom Williams confirmed:"Following discussions with the manager and on nutritional advice, it was decided to no longer feed our team red meat for health and performance reasons.

"(It has now been) decided that this policy should be extended to the stadium, at least in part as a further step in establishing ourselves as a 'green' organisation.

"We appreciate some will miss their burgers and sausages, but our catering staff are working hard on a range of tasty and interesting products to replace those that are no longer available."

Owner Vince, who runs green electricity company Ecotricity, was unapologetic in his stance.

"If red meat was not good enough to feed our players, then it wasn't good enough for our staff, fans and visitors too.

"At its worst it means once every two weeks watching a football game without being able to eat red meat.

"Anybody that really needs it can bring a ham sandwich or something if they wish - that's no problem."

The chairman of the club's supporters trust Tim Barnard admitted there were "a few raised eyebrows" at the ground last weekend when fans were unable to order cottage pie, but added: "I'm a traditional chips and curry sauce man myself so it doesn't really affect me."

The club has not done a complete switch to vegan food however, as free-range poultry and fish from sustainable stocks will continue to be served.

Communications director Williams concluded: "We're a country now where apparently chicken tikka masala is the most popular national dish. I think the old sausage bap won't be much lamented."