Vegan Practically

This story, “Where’s the beef?: vegan diet to be ‘imposed’ on Warwick University students after vote bans meat and dairy,” came across my inbox last week (thanks, Samantha!). What a reassuring relief to read that it is in the realm of possibility for students of a large institution to vote in favour of going completely plant-based. Knowing that it’s almost unheard of even for a single event to be completely plant-based (unless it’s a vegan event to begin with), the idea of a campus with almost 28,000 students going totally vegan seemed totally out of reach until I read this story. The reasons are being framed in terms of sustainability. The organization behind this advocacy is the UK-based Plant-Based Universities.

But the devil will be in the details. The BBC report about the same story states that the vote applies to union-run outlets on campus only and that “Three establishments at the University of Warwick are now required to adopt fully plant-based menus by 2027.”

A similar vote took place at Cambridge back in February, when the students voted to support a transition to plant-based catering. But the final decision rests with the university. Cambridge removed ruminants from its menus back in 2016. As is common knowledge, ruminants such as cows and sheep account for large quantities of methane and other greenhouse gas emissions (estimates for livestock range from 11-19%, with 14.5% as the most frequently-cited amount).

Though voter turnout was low at Warwick, 52% of the 1472 (out of 28000) students who voted were in favour of the motion to go plant-based by 2027. That is potentially another sticking point, where people will object to a small percentage of the overall student population voting for such a radical change in campus catering. But the opportunity to vote was not a secret. Other campus votes (like in Edinburgh) have had different outcomes.

When considered as a demonstration of commitment to sustainability, it is difficult not to identify the change to plant-based catering as a way to significantly reduce an institution’s carbon footprint. So many institutions, my own included, pride themselves as being leaders on the sustainability front. And yet how many stories make a connection between sustainability and campus catering? At my university the answer is, as far as I can tell, none.

When I complain about catering options (as I do in my Vegan Catering Fail series), it’s not just (or even mostly) that I’m grumpy not to have a decent meal option. It’s because not providing a decent plant-based meal option, having the only choices at a catered campus event be “the beef” or “the salmon” or “the chicken,” says oh-so-much about how far removed we are from seeing any change. Whether the reasons are offered in terms of sustainability or animal suffering, there is a high level of denial at play about the harmful consequences of commonplace food choices.

So when the next generation, as exemplified by students at Cambridge and at Warwick, vote to challenge the received view, that is a big deal. It’s a reason to have hope.