The Daily Tar Heel
URL: http://www.dailytarheel.com/index.php/article/2011/12/unc_debates_meatless_meals
Current Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 10:24:24 -0400
UNC debates 'Meatless Mondays' plan
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CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, the original version of this story incorrectly stated that the initiative is an extension of Durham Health Innovations. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
UNC students are trying to save some of the 83 to 100 animals most people consume each year.
Eleni Vlachos, a local advocate for veganism who has been using that statistic to educate people nationwide, is helping students expand vegan and vegetarian menu items at campus dining halls.
If Carolina Dining Services approves a proposal drafted by students, all Mondays would be designated as “Meatless Mondays.”
Biology major Brandon Hays presented the student proposal to dining services Monday.
The proposal follows a recent national trend to promote veganism and vegetarianism on college campuses, including East Carolina University and Davidson College, said Vlachos, who is also a community relations contractor for Duke Medicine.
Vlachos recently traveled to universities around the country to promote her documentary on the benefits of veganism.
She said some schools went as far as to eliminate meat entirely from Monday menus.
UNC’s proposal would not eliminate meat and animal products from the menu on Mondays, Vlachos said. Instead, it would provide a greater variety of vegan-friendly food, such as imitation chicken.
Proponents said providing processed vegan items instead of traditional meat could save the dining halls money.
The initiative was brought forward by a team of five UNC student groups.
“A lot of students don’t really know where their food comes from or the impact of the choices they make everyday when they go to eat,” Hays said.
By eliminating meat from the diet once a week for a year, it is as beneficial to the environment as not driving 1,160 miles, she said.
Currently, Rams Head and Lenoir offer vegan and vegetarian options — but not as many as some students would like, said Scott Myers, director of Food and Vending Services.
“There is always the ability to put together a vegan meal, but sometimes you have to forge your way around the dining hall,” Myers said.
“What we try to work on vegan diets with is (telling them) to get something from the salad bar and then get some vegetables from the entree and vegetarian lines to put a full meal together,” he said.
Meatless Mondays would make veganism and vegetarianism the focus of meals — instead of just an option.
Recently, dining services has started labeling vegan and vegetarian food items on the various entree station display screens.
Vlachos believes Meatless Mondays, if approved, would provide UNC students with an opportunity to be creative in showing the benefits of veganism.
“UNC can really take this to another level and hopefully be a model for other schools,” Vlachos said.
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17 comments
There are many reasons to choose a vegan lifestyle. Here are two uplifting videos to help everyone understand why so many people are making this life-altering choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKr4HZ7ukSE and http://www.veganvideo.org
Dear liberals keep your hands off my meat, money and guns
This sounds like a typical liberal case of:
Our ideology sucks so much lets mandate it for everyone so we can feel less like total idiots.
If people are already paying exorbitant prices for their meal plans why not let them have all options. If you don’t want to eat meat, that’s fine just don’t push it on the rest of us.
Hey Katie, thanks for the article. Just to clarify — this is not part of Durham Health Innovations. I’m a volunteer/organizer with Triangle Meatless Monday.
Rather than showcasing the benefits of veganism, we hope this initiative will help facilitate increased tasty animal-free options for students, with a triple benefit (environment, health, animal welfare) – and increase awareness about the reasons it is beneficial to choose these options when possible.
Meatless Monday is about choice — that is why we emphasize adding options rather than removing them, as well as taking steps to eat fewer animal products rather than saying “go vegan.”
The documentary tour also explored our views about animals and eating meat, and included a conversation between those who eat meat and those who do not. It was meant to facilitate discussion and highlight one of the most significant issues of our time.
Sure but the should lower the cost of a dining plan or use the saved money to buy better food.
This is great that more options are available for people that choose to eat vegan if this goes through. There are many health and environmental benefits to eating vegan (in addition to improving animal welfare), and the numbers of those choosing to eat vegan are growing. The Meatless Monday movement is all about having more freedom to make your own choice. Also, they’re not asking asking you to “switch teams” and go vegan for the rest of your life— you don’t have to be a vegan to eat a vegan meal. It’s about large groups making small changes that can make a big difference. Kudos to Eleni and the rest of the campaign for helping UNC Chapel Hill be a model to other universities!
I don’t quite understand the title of “Meatless Monday”. From the sounds of the proposal and the comment from Eleni, this group simply wants to add more vegan and vegetarian options to the menu without removing anything. I’m glad that they are taking this approach and focusing on the value of letting people choose, so I’m not sure why they would use the title “Meatless Monday” when it obviously conveys the idea that they want to completely eliminate meat from the menu on Mondays.
Gladly cancelling my meal plan if this bs goes through.. Biggest Meatiest Tastiest (BMT) at Subway – here I come!!
I think Meatless Monday is a great idea – it doesn’t require one to stop eating meat, but opens up a world of other choices.
Thanks Eleni – I agree with you about the triple benefit of helping animals, the environment, and – maybe the most important to many – personal health.
The American Dietetic Association recognizes that reduced meat consumption decreases the risk of various health problems, stating, “Scientific data suggests positive relationships between a vegetarian diet and reduced risk for several chronic degenerative diseases and conditions, including obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and some types of cancer”
I couldn’t find any statistics easily specific to college age students in North Carolina, but 30 percent of North Carolina high school youth (9th–12th grades) are either overweight or obese, according to the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data and only 15% eat fruits and vegetables five or more times a day. That is scary.
Just wanted to say thank you Eleni for making it a better place for all of us. I really think you should keep politics out of this. I know people from all walks of life who are vegan, Giving students more choices to eat better is fantastic! I think this story could do with some corrections though.
If I felt like this was just about adding vegan and vegetarian meal choices for the students who want them, I would be fine with it. However, based on five semesters of experience with Carolina Dining Services, I know that this won’t really be the case. After all, there is a finite number of serving areas, and if the main lines are devoted to vegetarian options, that means the only meat options that would still be available on Mondays would be hamburgers and pepperoni pizza. I understand vegetarians’ desire for more options, but I don’t think the meat-eating portion of the student body (which, frankly, is the majority) should be essentially penalized every Monday on their behalf.
To play devil’s advocate (or PETA advocate) in response to Cassandra…you say meat eaters should not be penalized but I would say they are constantly penalizing the following groups:
1) Taxpayers footing the bill for the huge amounts of obesity related medical costs swamping medicare, medicaid, the VA system, etc. Vegetarians/vegans are much less likely to be obese, diabetic, etc.
2) People affected by climate change. Meat consumption has huge externalities- the pollution, carbon emissions, etc are not captured by the price paid for the meat.
3) Animals- they get slaughtered and have their corpses eaten! That’s a pretty big penalty for any sentient creature.
So meat eaters are constantly penalizing these groups, why not prevent that by offering more vegan options which would be better for human health, taxpayers, the environment, and of course, the animals.
If one would give this article a closer inspection, one would see it is about options, not about taking away anything from anyone. This is certainly not about mandates.Meatless Mondays about adding the option of healthful and environmentally friendly foods. Before this campaign, those who wanted a healthful, environmentally, animal friendly option were out of luck. A big THANK YOU to Eleni and all of the other TMM volunteers for making this movement a success!
Thanks to Eleni and Triangle Meatless Monday for their work on this! Contrary to what some people posted, this campaign is about providing more options for everyone. More and more people are choosing to eat vegetarian meals at least some of the time, so providing people with a way to do this is good. See these stats – Seventeen percent of Americans stated that they “don’t eat meat, fish, seafood, or poultry at many of my meals (but less than half the time)” and 16% don’t eat these foods at more than half of their meals (but not all the time). Thus, 1/3 (33%) of the country are eating vegetarian meals a significant amount of the time (in addition to vegetarians)!
Oh please. These hippies like to criticize the American lifestyle without even realizing that vegetarianism is a first world luxury. In those impoverished countries you like to guilt everyone about, they would kill to eat the food that you turn up your nose to.
UNC students are trying to save some of the 83 to 100 animals most people consume each year.”
Really you innumerates?? For “most people” to consume “83 to 100 animals each year” we’d all have to be living off of Church’s Fried Chicken boxes. What is y’ll gonna do wid all dem chickens once y’all git dis social/dietary problem solved??
Upun further reflection it is now incumbent on me to beg my readers’ pardon regarding my comment about innumeracy. At the time I made the comment, it hadn’t occured to me that if one counts each fried shrimp from Hector’s as an “animal eaten” then indeed we may be consumimg even more than 83 to 100 animals each year. My bad.
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