Here Are Five Real Ways to Celebrate Meat Month

Celebrate meat month with this handy meat basket.

Every day is a food holiday. There are calendars that compile lists of foods to celebrate and not one day is left out. Some of the holidays are real and recognized by the government, and some are purely fictional, but they always give us an excuse to to consume, write and talk about food.

See also:
- BREAKING: It's Not National Tater Tot Day
- Celebrate National Taco Day With Free Tacos
- On National Pie Day, Dallas' Best Diners for Pie

So I wasn't surprised when I received a news release alerting me that January was National Meat Month. What did surprise me was how offensive the email was.

"January is known as National Meat Month," the release started, before offering statistics on meat consumption to illustrate how much Americans love to eat meat. According to the release, we consumed 52 billion pounds of meat last year for an average of 270.7 pounds consumed per person.

Compare that to the worldwide average of 102.5 pounds per person consumed yearly and it's easy to see where America stacks up.

Supposing 52 billion pounds of meat is an accurate figure, and using 315,000,000 for a national population I get something closer to 165 pounds per person, but let's ignore the bad math. Let's ignore the crass display of gluttony in comparing American meat consumption with other countries, many of which have large populations who can't even afford meat. Let's also ignore that the statistics in the release gloss over the fact that Americans actually consumed 12 percent less meat as a country in 2012 compared with 2007 -- and those numbers are still dropping. The biggest bummer in this release are the suggestions offered for celebrating meat day.

Google "5 Ways to Celebrate National Meat Month" and you'll see this release starting to work its way around the Internet. It suggests we should try something new by indulging buffalo or ostrich burgers and host a meat-themed potluck that focuses on our friend's favorite meat dishes. We're also encouraged to exchange meat recipes, dine out a little more this month (and eat meat of course) and make a family recipe book.

I'm still trying to get my head around exactly how excited my friends would be for a no-holds-barred recipe exchange party, but this list strikes me as pretty lazy. Almost anyone could easily come up with five better ways to celebrate Meat Month. And imagine if those ideas actually left you with a better appropriation of meat.

How about these?