By Scott T. Sterling
Paul McCartney has released One Day a Week, a new short film that promotes his “Meat Free Monday” campaign.
The doc features campaign co-founders Mary and Stella McCartney (Paul’s daughters) as well as actors Emma Stone and Woody Harrelson sharing facts about the impact of livestock agriculture on climate change.
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“Meat Free Monday encourages people to not eat meat at least one day a week with the hope that if enough people do it and the idea spreads, it will make a difference,” McCartney said in a press statement. “My film, One Day a Week, aims to raise awareness of this important issue and show people that if we all join together in this effort, we can help improve the environment, reduce the negative impacts of climate change, and even improve people’s health.”
In an interview with National Geographic editor in chief Susan Goldberg, McCartney talks about his own decision to become a vegetarian, and why he advocates for people to become “meat moderators” with their diets.
“I support a lot of causes, but this particular one is personal for me because it is how I live,” McCartney explained. “Through this campaign, I can say to people, ‘Just try it,’ and show people that it can actually be quite fun when you look at what you do, what you eat, how you live and think, ‘Is this what I’m gonna do for the rest of my life or would it be kind of interesting to try making a change?'”
McCartney also revealed some Beatles lore during the conversation, detailing how a 1965 article in National Geographic inspired the 1968 song “Lady Madonna.”
“I love National Geographic and I’ve loved it since I was a kid. It’s sort of always there, that yellow frame and you know exactly what it is and you know you’re gonna get great photos and great stories about the world,” McCartney said. “One particular issue, I saw in the ’60s, had a woman…and she looked very proud and she had a baby ….” he explained of the article titled “American Special Forces in Action in Viet Nam,” which featured a photo by Howard Sochurek of a woman surrounded by three small children, one of them nursing.
“I saw that as a kind of Madonna thing, mother and child…… You know, sometimes you see pictures of mothers and you go, ‘She’s a good mother.’ You could just tell there’s a bond and it just affected me, that photo,” McCartney added. “So I was inspired to write ‘Lady Madonna,’ my song, from that photo.”
Check out One Day A Week below.
