The BU Sustainability organization is referred to by many activists on campus as being the “reusable mug movement.” Instead of focusing on institutional changes that could make a substantial impact (such as turning off all the lights in buildings after 9 p.m. or working toward funding renewable energy sources physically on campus), BU Sustainability uses green-washing as their ultimate solution.
Green-washing is a public relations tactic that fosters a false sense of contribution. The reality is that BU emits 60 metric tons of carbon dioxide every three hours; this is specifically noted on BU Sustainability’s website. BU Sustainability suggests that we carry a reusable shopping bag or purchase reusable containers for food in the GSU; however, nowhere in their “Ten Sustainable Action” tips is the suggestion to reduce meat intake, which is a certified direct contributor to climate change. BU Sustainability is lacking the initiative to make the leaps and bounds that such a project should aspire to.
To show our commitment to this endeavor, the BU Vegetarian Society requests the implementation of Meatless Mondays. If we have one Monday every month during which one or more of the dining halls serves only vegetarian meals, students would learn more about the impact their food choices have on our planet. Meat production wastes resources such as water, land and electricity; it pollutes the air we breathe and the water we drink. Ultimately, it is neither sustainable nor clean. The more students are exposed to vegetarian options the more likely they are to understand the benefits of vegetarianism – not only for themselves, but also for the environment.
Other large institutions have implemented Meatless Mondays, including New York University, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Virginia, Yale University and many more. Shouldn’t we live up to the standards of fellow great institutions?
We must stop accepting mediocrity like claiming that we are affecting change to the best of our ability when we simply shop with reusable bags and recycle our water bottles. We must push for robust change on an institutional level.
Sincerely,
BU Vegetarian Society
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Ok, now dining has to give into the demands of the 6 people that make up the Veg. Society??? What is going on here?? This letter sounds so threatening! Hey Freep do you proofread anything to make sure it’s ok for print? This is an awful letter
How would the BU Vegitarian Society feel if one day per month a dining hall did not offer any Vegitarian options?
There’s a difference between depriving someone of all vegetarian options (including fruit, vegetables, legumes) and depriving them of privileged foods (beef, chicken, pork, dairy, eggs).
The BU Vegetarian Society makes a disturbing suggestion, that the university should purposefully remove meat from campus dining facilities. Such a suggestion is not only authoritarian in nature, it also wouldn’t work.
Students should have the right to eat the foods of their choosing. As someone who follows the primal/paleo lifestyle, I don’t think starches and sugar are particularly healthy for people, especially in the quantities most people are consuming (USDA recommends 300 g carbs per day). Should I advocate for grainless-sugarless Fridays? No. People need to make their own lifestyle choices, and those who disagree with those choices are free to convince them otherwise. I personally don’t agree with the drawn conclusion of ‘agriculture contributes to climate change’. But even if that were the case, a better proposal may be to encourage consumption of grass-fed beef and free-range chicken since they are not consuming the large quantities of corn products produce by large agri-businesses. Eliminating options by coercion is never suitable; if options are eliminated because people no longer want something, then this is very suitable. Give people information and let them be free to choose.
Meatless Monday’s would, nonetheless, never realistically achieve the intended effect of reducing meat consumption. Why? Because there are other choices beyond the campus, and my guess is that students would be more than willing to venture out to get it. I would predict that GSU sales would slump as students head out to nearby eateries. Besides that, any reduction of meat on such a small scale would have a negligible impact on CO2 levels.
My advice to the BU Vegetarian Society is that if they want to promote vegetarianism, they should be free to do so. But promote their ideas by using persuasion, not coercion. I will try to persuade them and others why they’re wrong on many fronts, including their climate change arguments, but I leave them free to eat all the grains they want, even though I think it’s terribly bad for them.
What? No.
Really good timing guys. Thanks a lot for posting this the day before the Earth Day Festival on the CRC: The annual event organized by sustainability@BU to promote local sustainability-related businesses and student groups on campus including the Boston Vegetarian Society and oh yeah, you guys.
Also, thanks for getting the administration to spend huge amounts of money on going “cage-free” with our egg purchases next year instead of pushing for renewable energy or whatever else it is that you criticize sustainability@BU for not doing (notice the official name of the office, because you got it wrong).
I would hope that if you’re going to chastise BU for not doing more, that you would consider taking a look at the administration’s actions and budget instead of attacking the people working hard to achieve feasible goals for a sustainable future on campus. Believe it or not, everything isn’t as easy as signing a petition and getting what you want. Join another student group or criticize their activism if you want to push for more change unrelated to vegetarianism.
sustainability@BU and Dining Services Sustainability have done so much in the past three years that it is really offensive you would even think of calling their initiatives “green washing”. Why don’t you educate yourselves about the real progress we have made rather than dwelling on really general issues such as “turning the lights off after 9pm” (just so you know, not all the buildings on campus are perfectly synchronized, because in case you hasn’t noticed, BU owns a whole lot of square footage).
I urge anyone who has read this Letter to the Editor to check out sustainability@BU’s website before you go ahead and agree with everything the Vegetarian Society has to say.
The BU Vegetarian Society makes a disturbing suggestion, that the university should purposefully remove meat from campus dining facilities. Such a suggestion is not only authoritarian in nature, it also wouldn’t work.
Students should have the right to eat the foods of their choosing. As someone who follows the primal/paleo lifestyle, I don’t think starches and sugar are particularly healthy for people, especially in the quantities most people are consuming (USDA recommends 300 g carbs per day). Should I advocate for grainless-sugarless Fridays? No. People need to make their own lifestyle choices, and those who disagree with those choices are free to convince them otherwise. I personally don’t agree with the drawn conclusion of ‘agriculture contributes to climate change’. But even if that were the case, a better proposal may be to encourage consumption of grass-fed beef and free-range chicken since they are not consuming the large quantities of corn products produce by large agri-businesses. Eliminating options by coercion is never suitable; if options are eliminated because people no longer want something, then this is very suitable. Give people information and let them be free to choose.
Meatless Monday’s would, nonetheless, never realistically achieve the intended effect of reducing meat consumption. Why? Because there are other choices beyond the campus, and my guess is that students would be more than willing to venture out to get it. I would predict that GSU sales would slump as students head out to nearby eateries. Besides that, any reduction of meat on such a small scale would have a negligible impact on CO2 levels.
My advice to the BU Vegetarian Society is that if they want to promote vegetarianism, they should be free to do so. But promote their ideas by using persuasion, not coercion. I will try to persuade them and others why they’re wrong on many fronts, including their climate change arguments, but I leave them free to eat all the grains they want, even though I think it’s terribly bad for them.
It’s notable that at Hopkins, we have “Meatless Monday,” but dining halls have no less meat and few or no extra vegetarian options. It’s just a name.
To say that BU Sustainability is greenwashing is a bit harsh. When it comes to environmentalism, you have to consider the strides that we have made as a school and an institution. As far as I know, Dining Services has tried to implement Meatless Mondays in the past, only to face objections from the student body and administration. While it is true that more can always be done in terms of sustainability, you cannot bash or discredit that which has been done.
Also, I doubt anyone truly understands the full extent of what BU Sustainability has done for our school.
If you want to make a change, I suggest you do more than handing out paper flyers on the street, and instead collaborate with the Sustainability program and make use of their resources in order to reinstate Meatless Mondays.
YOU ARE ALL IGNORANT. veganism is the most sustainable, “green”, and environmental friendly effort there is. These comments are “disturbing”, to be so uniformed is truly the issue. Go research and watch a documentary, then all you ignorant people will truly see how meat and animal product consumption are impractical. My advice: use your brain.
oy vey
comments like these make people call vegans hostile and authoritative and closed-minded, which in general we are NOT. please try to refrain from calling people ignorant, no matter how strongly you feel. it makes us look bad and doesn’t help get your point across. no one reacts well to being told they’re wrong.
I think it’s funny how all of the meat eaters are jumping down the Veg Society’s throat for simply urging and challenging Sustainability to make BU actually sustainable. What are you people doing besides being posting stupid, ignorant, and horribly misinformed comments on a public forum? All of the information about how a vegan lifestyle is the most sustainable thing a person could do is there. All of the information about a how a vegan diet will GREATLY reduce your risk of chronic disease is there. All of the information proving everything you imbeciles is wrong is there, goddamnit. How about you do a little research before you talk of an issue you obviously know little to nothing about. Lastly, being vegan isn’t just a choice for those so inclined, it’s the only way to truly be a compassionate, caring, and just human being. Listen to Earth Crisis.
How ’bout you spell check/ review your post before you post it since half of that didn’t make sense?
While I doubt the people reading this argument are ignorant, I do believe your understanding of vegetarianism/veganism is ignorant. I implore you to go to a factory farm and see the degradation of our environment (water, resources, land use, etc.) – and why? Because your taste buds require it. Please re-think what Sustainability means to you, and what it should mean to BU. As self-respecting students at a well-respected institution such as BU, shouldn’t we be able to think critically about our own actions?
And for all those who “can’t deal” without meat one day a month – read more this article more closely, the BU Veg Society requested Meatless Mondays at one or more dining halls, thus, there would be the option to get that fix at other dining halls.
And please, stop writing anonymously. Have a little courage and own what you write.
It would appear that the keyword for Vegans/Vegetarians is “ignorant” can you conquer the English language any better? Or is your command so low because of the lack of protein you get from not eating any meat?
Poor Dave couldn’t find one substantial thing to say. So, instead, he used a run-on sentence to critique our choice of words.
Dave. Buddy. Is this the best you can do? Come back when you have something to add.
“I personally don’t agree with the drawn conclusion of ‘agriculture contributes to climate change’.”
-Nitrous oxide is 310 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide; the livestock industry generates 65 percent of all human related nitrous oxide.
-Methane has 23 times the global warming effect potential as carbon dioxide; about 40 percent of all methane produce from human activities comes from livestock.
(source: US Emissions Inventory 2008)
“a better proposal may be to encourage consumption of grass-fed beef and free-range chicken since they are not consuming the large quantities of corn products produce by large agri-businesses.”
-It takes between 2 and 20 acres of land (depending on location) to support the growth of one grass-fed cow, an unsustainable amount of land consumption given the current demand for meat. (USDA Economic Research Service)
-It takes over 5000 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat, compared to 10-20 gallons of water to produce one pound of vegetables, fruit, soybeans, or grain. (source: Pimentel, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2003)
The reality is that consuming meat does have a huge impact on the environment, and there is no such thing as “sustainable” sources of meat. I just wanted to set the record straight.
My opinion is that any organization that claims to advocate for the environment cannot be taken seriously if it does not first reject such an inefficient, wasteful source of food as animals. The depletion caused by consuming animals is not nearly as threatening as the environmental impact of transportation and energy. To ignore this is irresponsible and selfish in my view.
Though unrelated, I would also be very interested to see a study which concluded that a paleo diet is ideal for human health.
This letter was written as an expression of the long held frustration that the BU Vegetarian Society has felt concerning Sustainability@BU and the Earth Week events, most especially the events centering around sustainable seafood and the clam chowder making competition. As a long-time vegetarian and recent vegan, I and many of my fellow members of the BU Vegetarian Society have done extensive reading and research on issues surrounding animal agriculture (see above, for instance). I can say with total confidence that sustainability is one of the most blatantly apparent failures of the meat, dairy, egg and fishing industries. PLEASE research this if you are not already aware of the extensive land, water, soil, species, and habitat depletion directly caused by these sectors.
So, I think it would be helpful if readers understood where this letter was coming from: a well informed group of people who feel that a HUGE facet of sustainable living is being sidestepped and even overtly rejected (especially by the hosting of a clam chowder competition!) by an organization that should be the first to embrace the most effective (however controversial) actions for conserving our Earth’s most important resources.
I went to the Chowder thing in the GSU on Thursday and it featured ingredients that are local. Not sure what you mean Abby with that comment about the chowder. Did you attend? Or have you given up on our school? You’re a disgrace!
Just because something is local doesn’t mean that it’s sustainable. Our demand for seafood is emptying the oceans at a disturbing rate and very clearly unsustainable. So, to promote the consumption of seafood, even if it didn’t require a lot of gas to get to BU (since it was locally sourced), doesn’t make sense.
Anyway, animal based food is, in general, an incredibly inefficient source of nutrition. Animal based foods create more pollution and greenhouse gasses than plant based foods. Animal based foods require more land and clean water to be produced than do plant based foods. If we want to promote the idea of living with a smaller impact on the planet, we should be promoting the consumption of plant based foods over animal based foods.
Also, if we had given up on BU, then would we be having this conversation? No. We believe BU can be a better place. That’s why we wrote this letter.
And last, have you met Abby? She rocks. What exactly makes her a disgrace? Because she’s critical of BU? Well where would we be without people like Abby inciting change in our community? Please think more carefully before you make a judgment like that.