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've worked in a primary school where all the school dinners were vegetarian and the food was great. Presumably because they had more money to spend.

I'm not sure why they'd do this, it doesn't make any sense.

This! You only have to read food threads on here to realise that lots of meat eaters eat lots of processed food, but then if vegans eat any, they get pulled apart.

When I was at uni, most of my friends had crap diets, and my own children currently at uni say the same about their friends now, so students have never been known for their healthy lifestyles.

I wouldn’t mind the vegan food but I’d be bringing my own milk for coffee. Plant milk is vile.

What about the animal 's choice not to die? It always makes me laugh when people say stuff like this. Everyone should have a choice apart from the living being in the equation that didn't have any choice!?

I would argue that local produce is the most environmentally friendly way to eat. I realise that this may make things pricier but fewer food miles can only be a good thing.

Pretty ridiculous, attention grabbing headline, in truth.

Once you start to read about it, I believe this is just people who attended the meeting, have decided to lobby the University, and not - as implied - that the whole university and all it's commercial outlets, are going to become vegan outlets.

On the bigger campuses (for example, Birmingham is on the list) there are many commercial outlets on campus that will sell food that students want to eat. It's how business works.
Others will just go into Selly Oak where there are numerous food places who will sell them what they want to eat.

If anyone chooses to be vegan, that's fine by me, but trying to impose it upon others, is not.

Animals are bred for food.

All staff catering is vegan at our university. I pop to pret whenever there is a catered event because it's all overly perfumed and spiced for my liking.

I don't see the issue. Anyone can eat vegan food, they might not like all vegan food or be intolerant to some of it but as a category it doesn't exclude meat eaters and vegetarians.

If the cafe served UPF meat stuff before then switching to UPF vegan stuff is probably better. I doubt they're going from home-made, healthy, free range meat-based meals to UPF vegan stuff, it is a student café after all.

Chips are usually vegan and most students like chips. It's not like they're depriving people of food and nobody is being forced to eat there.

Student unions are always changing what is sold on campus, when I was at uni it was a push for fair trade everything and a boycott on Nestle. There were probably some people who were annoyed they had to walk further to get a kitkat but it's really never been an issue.

I respect the views of anyone who wishes to pursue a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. I do not and equally I think my views should be respected. I would feel aggrieved at being forced to change my diet in this way in the same way I would if a University was not offering vegetarian or vegan options.

Nobody is forcing anyone to eat there or saying you can only bring vegan options onto campus.

Do you really eat meat for every meal including lunch?

You never have veggie soup, jacket potato and beans, roasted veg and houmous sandwich, salads, falafel wrap, chips? They're pretty standard choices for vegans and non vegans.

If it's completely whole food, it's amazing and healthy for everyone.

If it's UPF, they've just displaced one massive issue with another.

@Huckyfell I know - but they are also living beings that don't have a choice. Much like how people can be born into slavery - doesn't make it ethically or morally right - just means you have removed their choice.

I guess the thing is that catered accommodation is/ was an opportunity to get a reasonably healthy and balanced meal, though, to compensate for all the pot noodles they might be eating 😅

(I know they've always served burgers and chips as well though).

I think it really depends what it actually looks like and if healthy food that is not UPF will be available. If so then it would be great.

But I think that ultimately, meeting people's dietary needs is more important than a political agenda, and we shouldn't be stuffing students full of more UPF's than they would be having anyway. So if it's a load of fake meat then I wouldn't be happy.

I’m thinking about the few days I spent in a hospital that had switched to a “heart healthy” menu. I was there at the last minute after an accident so could not prepare food in advance. Finding anything safe for my allergies was next to impossible. They clearly did not think it through and only considered certain groups.

universities do sometimes host groups that have all their meals on campus. My dd will be spending a week at a university over the summer holidays. They eat all their meals in campus dining halls. She has done this stay before and it’s challenging for her because she has ASD and ARFID, but it’s worth it for the experience. A switch like this might make it impossible for someone with her condition to attend the program.

I do like a jacket potato and beans, but would not be spending my treat money on any of roasted veg and houmous sandwich, salads, falafel wrap , no.

If I'm spending money on buying food to go or to eat in a cafe, then it would need to be something I'd consider to be really nice.

Stirling uni voted to go plant based in 2022, and it’s listed as a ‘victory’ on that plant based universities website. Considering the roaring trade in bacon rolls in the student union whenever I’ve been in recently, I suspect it’s not going to actually happen.

I would like the right to eat meat and have meat options. Yes I can eat vegetables but I am unlikely to do so all the time and this would in my view provide me with a very restrictive diet. I am also keen to support the dairy, pork, beef and chicken rearing industries in the UK. I do not see why my food preferences are any less valid than anyone else's. I do not force vegetarians to eat meat and in return I do not expect to be forced not to.

Plant based mass catering is usually massively UPF, which has neither the environmental or health benefits that plant based eating could.

Do you think that people are only allowed to eat at this one particular cafe for all of their meals? Nobody is taking away anyone's "rights".

Meat eaters complaining about no meat options being available sound like people who moan there's no alcohol being served somewhere. You don't have to have it at every eating opportunity. I eat meat maybe two or three times a week and I'm quite happy to eat normal food that happens to be vegan the rest of the time.

Two Russell Group Universities have voted to install a 100 per cent plant-based menu on campus to “end the climate crisis”.

Wow, who knew that it was as simple as that? Two British university food outlets ban meat and the whole world is saved forever!!

Warwick is a campus university and this applies to the Student Union only so there will be plenty of choice at the other university run food outlets.

Except that, at least in Warwick’s case, it isn’t the whole university, it is just the Students Union food outlets.

What’s more they seem to have backtracked anyway.

Warwick Students’ Union (SU) has announced it will no longer implement a fully plant-based catering service by 2027.

This is despite a motion that passed in autumn last yearpropelling SU outlets to provide 100% plant-based food and drink options by the start of the 2027/2028 academic year.

https://theboar.org/2024/08/student-vote-for-full-transition-to-plant-based-catering-at-university-rejected-by-su/

Love the idea. Kudos.