Paul McCartney is famous for his vegetarian advocacy, helping numerous non-profits get their message out, however, in 2009, Paul and his two daughter’s Mary and Stella decided to take their passion to the next level and launch a Meat-free Monday campaign across the United Kingdom. The campaign caught the attention of numerous Hollywood celebrities, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Keven Spacey, and Woody Harrelson, as well as food celebrity Jamie Oliver and Billionaire entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. Nearly 1 million people have pledged to follow the campaign’s objective of a meat-free Monday.

Juliana Castaneda Turner, founder of Juliana’s animal sanctuary has been a lifetime fan of McCartney and was pleasantly surprised when she got the approval to represent the campaign in Colombia.

“My objective with this sanctuary is to teach people by example that all animals deserve love and respect and so representing the Meat-free Monday campaign fits perfectly with our education outreach plans,” she explained.

The Plight of Farmed Animals

The campaign sheds light on the fact that billions of animals are farmed and killed for meat each year. Most of them are raised in intensive factory farms, in cramped, overcrowded cages, sheds and pens. With no room to stretch limbs or wings and no access to daylight or fresh air, intensively reared animals are often diseased, injured and dying due to the unnatural conditions they are kept in. Farmed animals are subjected to mutilations such as having their beaks clipped, their teeth pulled out and their tails docked to stop them from pecking and wounding each other through boredom and frustration. All farmed animals end their lives with a brutal death at the slaughterhouse. Eating less meat is a compassionate step that helps prevent cruelty and suffering.

Juliana’s Lifelong Passion to help Animals

It has been more than 10 years since Juliana Castaneda Turner, our Co-founder and Director, began distributing free vegan food to people in need and to children at schools. Besides helping people in need, however, Juliana would take the opportunity to educate people about animal rights and the need to respect all animals. This passion for educating people about the plight of farm animals led her to start her own sanctuary. Recently, however, she has joined forces with the McCartney family to introduce Meat-free Mondays into Colombia and to expand her education outreach efforts with the help of one of the most famous people in the world. The project here will be called Lunes Sin Carne, a translation of Meat-free Mondays.

Paul McCartney sings the Meat-free Monday theme song

Meat-free Monday (Lunes Sin Carne) Outreach

• Invite the public, especially school children to visit our sanctuary and interact with the animals.
• Conduct vegan cooking classes.
• Educate the public about the benefits of a meat-free diet

Economical Benefits

South America is one of the agriculturally-richest regions of the world. Colombia, in particular, has some of the healthiest and cheapest fruits and vegetables of the region. Avoiding meat on Monday can save the public millions of millions of dollars.

Environmental Benefits

The adverse effect of factory farming on the environment has long been established, led in part by the United Nations groundbreaking report in 2006. We aim to teach the Colombian public about this correlation through education and the distribution of free vegan meals. The fact is: killing animals has a domino effect on the world environment.

Health Benefits

Juliana has set a great example of the health benefits of a diet free of meat. She became vegetarian when she was 6 years old and a vegan over 9 years ago. Recently, she released the first vegan cookbook in Colombia, Cooking with Jaggy. With her husband, Paul Rodney Turner, the international director of Food for Life Global, they are giving workshops on plant-based nutrition and inspiring Colombians to change their diets.

A new Meat-free Monday website is currently being prepared for the campaign. www.lunessincarne.co