Plant Based Universities

[GriseldaMolestrangler]

https://www.plantbaseduniversities.org/post/warwick-students-vote-yes-for-100-plant-based-menus

Two Russell Group Universities have voted to install a 100 per cent plant-based menu on campus to “end the climate crisis”. During Student Union meetings, students at both the University of Bristol and Imperial College London voted to switch to a vegan catering menu.

What do you think to this?

I think it's great.

Don’t see an issue with it personally.

Whats your opinion on it OP?

Absolute nonsense

I am vegetarian, and I know this will be horrible processed fake meat. But if they voted for it....

Do you go there op?

I work at a university where they have made the cafes 100% plant based and it's all shitty fake chick'n sandwiches and 'cheez' pizzas. Hardly a vegetable in sight

I think it’s fine. Realistically, most students are not eating all their food at campus dining facilities, so a few vegan meals a week is not going to kill anyone. I work for a university and we often do a lot of vegan catering if we run a meeting or a conference. As long as it’s not sandwiches, the food is always excellent.

Have they worked out how this would work logistically including catering for allergies?

I study at a uni whixh has plant based cafes only and the food is shite.

You can make great veggie and vegan food, but these places don't.

I think the local McDonalds will be doing a roaring trade.

@No33 I wonder if it's the same one I work at, because they are indeed utter shite

Has anyone asked the catering staff if they are willing, enthusiastic, capable, and geared up to these changes? Hmm?

I get this isn’t all about me but having regular contact with one of this list of unis I always take my own food now. With IBS-D which I manage well after many years of horror by avoiding certain trigger foods, anything involving beans, lentils, soy, chick peas, many veg types etc etc means illness for me. So I just take my chicken or tuna sandwich and get on with it. But yes I do feel overlooked and not provided for to be honest.

Nothing that's been imported (food miles = carbon emissions)
Nothing that's been processed in a factory (energy use = carbon emissions)
Nothing that's been frozen / refrigerated (energy use = carbon emissions)
So local food, either in season or capable of being stored at ambient temperature.
And if they're going to do the job right it should be consumed raw.
Is that what they're going to do, or are they maybe just engaging in a spot of virtue signalling?

So much for inclusion. Good to see it's live and kicking in our seats of FE ( or is it HE, whichever).

There are at least 9 common allergens that could be used in vegan foods - mustard, soy, gluten, nuts, peanuts, celery, sesame, lupin and sulphur. Not to mention legumes.

They will have to be very careful with labelling. I would have thought that processed items like fake meat and fake cheese would be a particular problem.

Anything at my university that’s plant based is processed crap. It’s awful! I’d be disappointed by this as it’s unlikely to be good quality and I’d avoid it.

Depends, plant based as in actually plant based, fine. Processed crap (which it will be), no thanks.

There ought to be choice imo. I don’t think any group should impose their worldview on everyone else. We should do what we can for the climate but I might choose to never fly and eat yoghurt every day.

Personally I love vegan food but I don’t want to eat UPF and too many pulses mess with my gut, so I imagine I’d find eating there really difficult.

I don't eat meat or fish but am not vegan. I can't stand things like Seitan and fake meat and chicken alternatives so don't bother. Don't eat eggs either. I take my own food mostly but sometimes forget. Personally it won't affect me much if at all but it's going to upset a lot of people I can see.

Well.... Each time i walk past a vegan/veggie cafe in any town it is either closed down or empty. Vegan/Veggie food is always going out of date so being thrown out.
As wonderful as the idea sounds, only around 2% of brits are vegan so that means that 98% of the students will be taking their own lunch in or shopping out of campus. I highly highly doubt that there will be a mass conversion.
I personally, fwiw, wouldn't purchase something from the place as it goes against my principles of each being allowed their own choice.

If they're serving poor quality plant based food they most likely served poor quality meat, previously. They certainly did back in the day when I was in uni halls and I doubt much changed for the better in the many, many years since.

It'll be loads of UPF crap.

But students wouldn't be students if they didn't vote for daft things.

This. I would much prefer we aimed for a balanced diet made from fresh, seasonal, local ingredients. Unlikely with a mass catered vegan diet.

I would be disappointed if I was a student, and I would certainly avoid buying vegan “fast food”, I don’t like it.
Would it put me off applying there as a student/for a job?
Probably not Imperial, as you can easily walk and get food elsewhere. Don’t know about Bristol.
I might think twice about a campus university in the middle of nowhere to be honest, it would be a pain if you can’t even pick up a cup of coffee on campus.