Vegin'
The Meatless Monday pledge has been met with mixed receptions on campus. The pledge calls for participants to adopt a vegetarian diet every Monday, touting benefits in personal health as well as for the environment.
Soumya Nadabar, a senior studying international studies and economics, created the Meatless Monday pledge for NC State’s campus. According to Nadabar, Meatless Monday had its roots in World War I, when the U.S. Food Administration encouraged families to reduce consumption of staples like meat products to ration and aid the war effort.
Nadabar works as a student campus organizer for the Humane League, a national farm animal protection nonprofit. Thirty campuses across the country currently have organizers supporting the Meatless Monday initiative.
“There is an abundance of information out that shows that beyond a doubt, eating animals contributes to our country’s biggest killers: heart disease and cancer,” Nadabar said. “Healthy plant-based meals provide all the protein and other nutrients our bodies need without the cholesterol it does not.”
Nell Kriesberg, a professor in interdisciplinary studies, has worked as a veterinary technician in the past. Kriesberg said partaking weekly in a day without meat can have multiple benefits.
“I think the real benefit of Meatless Mondays is psychological and spiritual because you are changing your lifestyle, even if only for one day, to take into account the needs of other species,” Kriesberg said. “It’s not just a question of feeling concern for animal treatment, but it becomes a way to connect with the larger environment and other people as well. Meat production takes an enormous toll on the environment, and the land that is used for growing crops for cattle, the massive amount of corn grown for pigs and chickens.”
Along with personal health benefits, Nadabar emphasized the environmental benefits from cutting down meat consumption.
“Several United Nations studies conclude that animal agriculture and ‘factory farms,’ which currently include virtually all animal agriculture in the U.S., are the leading contributor to climate change,” Nadabar said. “The EPA reports that these factory farms are the No. 1 polluter of water in the U.S. and the No. 2 polluter of air in the United States.”
Although the Humane League did not initially create the Meatless Monday pledge, it supports Meatless Mondays to reduce animal suffering.
“We can enjoy amazing food without supporting practices that are at odds with our values, and Meatless Mondays are an opportunity for us to take a step in the right direction,” Nadabar said. “We have the choice to help end animal cruelty, help our environment and heal the people every time we sit down to eat.”