Do you feel
students at MIT
should have the right to
choose an eco-friendly, tasty
and healthy plant-based meal
OFFERED BY dining services,
at no extra
cost?
MIT students should have the right to more
green, sustainable, healthy, and delicious meals.
“What starts here changes the world” is a motto of MIT.
So where are the greener, tastier, and healthier meal options on campus?!
There are very good reasons why the market for green,
plant-based food sales are projected to increase 451 percent this decade.1
Don’t let MIT be left behind!
Tasty Plant-Based Tacos and Butternut
Squash Will Save the Planet
A peer-reviewed report in The Lancet 2 found that
shifting diets toward plant-based foods and away from animal products is
essential for our planet.
The report stated, “vegan and vegetarian diets were associated with the
greatest reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions.”
A University of Oxford study 3 concluded that plant-based foods reduce carbon footprint,
water consumption and farmland requirements by up to 76%.
AALIYA HUSSAIN
Course 15-2
“Raising animals for meat is a tragic waste of water. To produce just 1 pound of beef requires over 2,400 gallons of water.
It’s not just water being wasted, it’s also valuable land. Nations are bulldozing incredible areas of land (including tropical rainforests!) to make space to raise animals to slaughter for food.
Millions of TONS of fish are being captured each year. This is NOT sustainable. For every pound of fish caught, 5X that of other sea animals are also caught in the net. And these are tossed away.
Kim A. Williams, MD
Previous president of the American College of Cardiology Kim A. Williams, MD is a vegan.
He says: “There are two kinds of cardiologists: vegans, and those who haven’t read the data.”
Bandele Okelana, MD
Resident at Dell Medical School explains:
“People on healthy plant-based diets enjoy lower body weight, decreased incidence of cancer, lower A1C levels to prevent diabetes, and a significant reduction of mortality risk from ischemic heart disease.”
all favor plant-based meals
Why?
Because they are packed with high quality
protein, vitamins, minerals,
fiber, and antioxidants
and are proven to prevent and
reverse heart disease, diabetes,
obesity and more!
Lactose intolerance prevents certain folks from properly digesting dairy and results in pain, cramps, bloating, diarrhea and throwing up.
ProCon (a non-profit associated with Encyclopedia Britannica) says that the NIH found that lactose-intolerance affects 75% to 90% of Asians, Black people, Native Americans, Mediterraneans, and Jewish people. 9
Tim Gutterman
Course 20
“I don’t think it’s fair that so much of the food on campus causes me nausea, cramps and bloating.”
These days, dairy just isn’t a necessary ingredient. I don’t mind if other students want to consume dairy and fall sick.
I just want a decent selection of food that won’t make me sick.
Aden Rothmeyer
Course 18 & 24-1
MIT Crew and ROTC member Aden Rothmeyer reminds us, “The animals you are eating lived in body-shaking fear. They were terrorized.”
Speciesism is defined as the belief that members of one’s own species are inherently superior to all other beings.
We know animals feel pain, and we torture them. We know they form social groups that they bond with, and we rip those apart and murder them in front of one another. Think of a pet, a dog. You know it feels sadness when you leave it alone, you know it is thrilled when you come back.
The animals we torture to death and eat are just as smart. They form social connections. Young pigs have repeatedly escaped from their cages and not just made a run for it—despite literally being tortured their whole life—they stay and free their fellow pigs, and then they try to escape together.
Why does speciesism matter? Because people accept it subconsciously to such a great degree that they seem to start believing other beings are so inferior that it is acceptable to torture, murder, and rape them on scales that dwarf the imagination.”
Many other students simply
want the right to choose a
vegan or healthy meal as a
part of our existing meal plan.
Many other students simply
want the right to choose a
vegan or healthy meal as a
part of our existing meal plan.
Each chicken lives on one piece of paper
It’s so crowded, they can barely move.
They can’t sleep properly because they’re
getting trampled from the crowd.
Chickens in the wild live an
average of 8 years of freedom.
Chickens for food consumption average just 1.5 months before being slaughtered.
That’s just 1.5% of their natural life!
It’d be like a human who was killed at 1 years old. When you eat chicken, you’re eating a baby chicken that was forced to live in filth, was never near its parents, and was electrocuted alive.
Infographic source 11
Jared David Berezin
Head of House, Random Hall
“For most meetings and events, animal-based food is the default, whereas environmentally-friendly, ethical, plant-based meals are available by individual request only.
Why not flip the status quo? Let’s make delicious plant-based meals the default entree for catered events and in the dining halls.
This would align with the values of many departments and groups across campus, whether they are focused on combating climate change, reducing suffering and violence, or improving the health of community members.” 12
Food for the Future!
To truly be a leading University in science and innovation while promoting ‘wisdom and care for humanity and the natural world,’ MIT must add quality plant-based meals around campus.
These students and faculty members who want to be green, healthy, and ethical should not be left out!
And MIT shouldn’t allow itself to be left out of the biggest global food movement of the 21st century!
Do you feel students at MIT should have the right to choose a plant-based meal offered by dining services, at no extra cost?
If yes, add your name!
Our Important Goal
We want at least 50% of all entrees, side-dishes, dessert, and meal options in all Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus-operated facilities to be plant-based within the next two years i.e. no later than September 1, 2025.
Sources:
https://climate.mit.edu/climateaction
https://www.mit.edu/values/#:~:text=wisdom%20and%20care%20for%20humanity%20and%20the%20natural%20world.
1. Bloomberg Intelligence – Plant-based foods poised for explosive growth https://share.getcloudapp.com/qGuJgpxR
2. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31788-4/fulltext
3. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2018-06-01-new-estimates-environmental-cost-food
4. https://healthyhorns.utexas.edu/n_balanceddiet.html
5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19562864/
6. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/nutrition-basics/how-does-plant-forward-eating-benefit-your-health
7. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm
8. https://onlybuyvegan.com/vegan-infographics/
9. https://milk.procon.org/lactose-intolerance-by-country/
10. https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/doctors-call-dietary-guidelines-ditch-dairy-fight-racial-health-disparities
11. https://thehumaneleague.org/article/broiler-chickens
12. https://www.livekindly.co/number-vegans-us-jumped-3000/
13. https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/water-scarcity#:~:text=Billions%20of%20People%20Lack%20Water,may%20be%20facing%20water%20shortages.
14. https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/basics/zoonotic-diseases.html
15. https://thebeet.com/kelloggs-plant-based/
16. https://thebeet.com/3d-printed-salmon/
17. https://nocamels.com/2022/06/vegan-food-tech-fest-israel-startups/
University of Texas, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and American Heart Association logos are trademarks of their respective owners.