In the US the Meatless Monday idea has been around for a while, it’s always been about health in the past, but they’ve just updated their website and the focus seems to have shifted - now the aims are to reduce Americans’ meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.

Now Paul McCartney and his daughters have brought the concept to the UK, under the name Meat Free Mondays. It’s a brilliant way to get people started on the journey towards vegetarianism, I hope people do move on from one day a week to 7 days a week once they realise how easy it is!

The Meat Free campaign has got the support of celebrities such as Chris Martin, Hollywood stars Kevin Spacey and Woody Harrelson, Joanna Lumley, Sir Richard Branson, Ricky Gervais, David Walliams and Matt Lucas, the poet Benjamin Zephaniah, Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, Kelly Osbourne, Laura Bailey and Sharleen Spiteri. The campaign was launched 15 June in London with a private celebrity lunch.

Friends of the Earth speedily sent out a press release this week to say they “welcomed the Meat Free Mondays initiative… but are urging the Government to change the way meat and dairy are produced to tackle the damaging environmental and social impacts of intensive production”. There is a place for Government lobbying, but how can we ask the Government to act before we can show we really care about this? Changing our consumer behaviour is about creating change by changing demand, but also about proving our committment to the Government, so they will change their policies too.