Meatless Mondays have started again!
Meatless Mondays originated as a means of rationing food during war. However, in recent years, it has re-sparked as a means to develop healthier food choices with regards to the environment and more ethical choices with regards to animals.
Animal agriculture is responsible for an astounding 18% of greenhouse gas emissions – more than all forms of transportation, combined. Meatless Mondays is the food-based equivalent to riding one’s bike, as opposed to a gas-guzzling monster truck.
In terms of animal treatment, the vast majority of the billions of animals slaughtered for meat each year in the United States spend their entire lives in deplorable and unsanitary conditions – enduring what we would be forced to consider horrific animal abuse if it were a dog, rather than a pig. Going meatless is the easiest way to avoid perpetuating the cruelties of factory farming with your dollar.
Reducing meat consumption also has positive effects on one’s health. A vegetarian or flexitarian diet has a vastly decreased risk of cancer, diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, when compared to an omnivorous diet. Many people report more energy after switching to a more plant-based diet.
Students for Animals have been working with Sodexo to have more meat-free options available on Mondays, as well as promoting the campaign. Today, we tabled the second Meatless Mondays event of the year. We distributed information with reasons to reduce meat consumption as well as nutritional facts, including common plant-based sources of protein, iron, and vitamin B-12. In the end, we collected 91 signatures from those pledging to go meat-free on all Mondays throughout the academic year. We hope to continue building upon this momentum to make Meatless Mondays a campus-wide standard.
Interested in making the pledge? Come visit us every Monday at Sadler from 11-2 or the Commons from 6-8!
P.S. Check out these yummy looking pizzas from this Monday!
