Dade County's children planted trees, took environmental oaths and went meatless Wednesday as part of Earth Day celebrations at county schools.

Meat was taboo in schools from North Miami Beach to Florida City. Cafeterias served items such as grilled cheese sandwiches and vegetarian pasta in place of the standard meat fare.

"We only eat meat once a week at my house anyway," said Charlotte Hayer, an eighth-grader at Ruben Dario Middle School. "We cut back because of the environment. It takes a lot of water to raise cattle."

The school district followed the meatless lunch with a ceremony in the School Board's auditorium in which Dade's elementary students were sworn in -- both live and via television -- as "enviro-cops."

"I feel like I'm an important part of the world," said Latoya Tarpley, a third-grader from Skyway Elementary and one of 16 elementary students in the ceremony downtown. "If we keep trashing the place, we'll have no place to live."

"It's important to me because when we grow up we want our kids to have a nice earth to live on," said Persia

Christensen, a third-grader from Ben Sheppard Elementary who also took part in the ceremony.

At Parkview Elementary, 350 students packed the school auditorium and earnestly recited the enviro-cop oath while watching a big-screen TV: "I solemnly swear that I will protect the environment and arrest waste."

After the ceremony, students and teachers walked out to the school's ongoing environmental project -- an ecology center that includes a bird and butterfly sanctuary, a stand of native trees and a field of grain.

Parkview fifth-grader Pierre Jerom, using a shovel to dig a hole for his school project, said: "If we don't plant trees, someday our world will have more garbage and land than trees."

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