Veggie Burghers

The Belgian town of Ghent has declared that Thursdays are "Veggie Dag" -- Veggie Day. Voluntarily, mind you.

In the Guardian -- "Day of the lentil burghers: Ghent goes veggie to lose weight and save planet"

Ghent embarks on a radical experiment today, seeking to make every Thursday a day free of meat and of the fish and shellfish for which the city is renowned.

On the eve of what is being touted as an unprecedented exercise, the biggest queue in the Flemish university town of 200,000 yesterday was for signatures – to collect a bag of wholefood goodies and sign up for "Donderdag – Veggie Dag", turning the burghers of Ghent into pioneers in the fight against obesity, global warming, cruelty to animals and against the myth that meat-free eating amounts to a diet of soggy lettuce, a slice of tomato, and a foul-tasting bean burger.

Try that in this country, and you'd have an armed insurrection on your hands.