Greener By Default at the University of Victoria
"Make plant-based food the default and give people the choice to opt in for meals with animal products. Greener by Default is inclusive, reduces your carbon footprint, and increases the healthfulness of your meals."
November 12, 2022
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed The Child Nutrition Act of 2022 (Assembly Bill 558), which incentivizes public elementary and high schools across the state to offer healthier, climate-friendly, plant-based meals and beverages.
Amy Buxton, Plant Based News, November 1, 2022
Aramark, the largest foodservice company in the US, has announced that it is committed to increasing the number of plant-based options on its college menus by 2025.
Working with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the catering giant will increase animal-free meal choices—so that they make up almost half (44 percent) of all offerings—across more than 250 educational institutions.
The two have worked together for more than a decade to improve food options in colleges and universities. HSUS has also previously collaborated with fellow educational food service provider Sodexo to facilitate a global shift towards plant-based consumption.
For Aramark, the HSUS partnership plays a major role in its company-wide environmental commitments. They are in place to create a 25 percent reduction in the carbon footprints of menus served by the provider in the US by 2030….
[… Read more at Plant Based News ]
Student activist Vaania Kapoor Achuthan, 19, from University College London says that in order to ensure a sustainable future, major institutions like colleges and universities have a responsibility to move “towards 100% just and sustainable plant-based catering.” Achuthan and other students argue that universities choosing to include animal products in their cafeterias not only illustrates complicity in the climate crisis, but also makes it more difficult for them to reach their sustainability goals.
Despite a 2006 United Nations report that found that animal agriculture emitted more greenhouse emissions than all of the transportation sector combined, progress mitigating the impact of animal agriculture on climate change has been slow, and the situation has grown more dire. Animal agriculture currently contributes at least 37 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, although estimates vary, is responsible for 65 percent of anthropogenic nitrous oxide emissions, and is the leading cause of deforestation around the world. Livestock emissions also account for 32 percent of human-caused methane emissions, which account for 30 percent of global warming to date. The environmental justice group CimateNexus reports that greenhouse gasses could be cut in half by the adoption of a plant-based diet, which is why these students are lobbying their universities to drop meat from their menus.
[… Read more at Sentient Media ]
Shalini Nanayakkara, University of British Columbia, November 2021
Ever wonder how our food choices impact the climate? Us, too. That’s why UBC has developed our first ever climate-friendly food label that tracks how much greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are produced in campus meals.
The Climate-Friendly Food Label is part of the emerging UBC Climate Action Plan 2030, which will position UBC as a model of how universities can mobilize to address the climate emergency and targets in the Paris Agreement through bold, impactful actions to accelerate and deepen reductions across operations, and expanded action on reducing indirect emissions from commuting, air travel, food, and waste.
[… Read more at University of British Columbia ]
Philip Oltermann,The Guardian, August 31, 2021
Students at universities in Berlin will from this winter swap currywurst and schnitzel for seeds and pulses, as campus canteens in the German capital make heavy cuts to their meat and fish options.
The 34 canteens and cafes catering to Berlin’s sizeable student population at four different universities will offer from October a menu that is 68% vegan, 28% vegetarian, and 2% fish-based, with a single meat option offered four days a week.
Students will be able to nourish themselves over the winter months with meals including buckwheat and spelt bowls topped with grilled sweet potatoes, marinated beetroot and sesame seeds, or pasta bakes with tomato and cheese.
“We developed a new nutritional concept mainly because students have repeatedly approached us with the request for a more climate-friendly offer at their canteens,” said Daniela Kummle of Studierendenwerk, the organisation providing economic, social, health and cultural support to students enrolled at Berlin’s higher education institutions.
[… Read more at The Guardian ]