The removal of beef and lamb products from menus at the University of Cambridge has led to a 33 per cent reduction in carbon emissions per kilogram of food, the university’s catering service has said.
The university’s Sustainable Food Policy, which was implemented in 2016, focused on reducing the consumption of meat, increasing plant based options on menus, removing unsustainable fish from menus and reducing food waste.
Steps taken to implement the policy included briefing catering staff on the environmental benefits of plant-based options and providing chefs with vegan cookery classes. To encourage changes in consumer behaviour, the catering service increased plant based options on menus while removing beef and lamb dishes.
In addition, vegetarian and vegan meals were placed before meat options on the menu.
In a press statement, head of the catering service Nick White said that the policy involved “making sacrifices”, but was “absolutely the right thing to do”.
Meat products have not been completely eliminated from the university’s menus, with dishes including chicken and pork still available. Other classic meat dishes have been replaced with alternatives, such as butternut squash lasagne and aubergine rogan josh.
Results published in “Our Sustainable Food Journey” by the university’s Environment and Energy team reveal that the policy led to a 10.5 per cent reduction in Cambridge University’s overall carbon emissions, and a 28 per cent reduction in land use per kilogram of food purchased.
There has also been a two per cent increase in gross profits since the implementation of the policy.
In a press statement, Andrew Balmford, a professor of conservation science at Cambridge said: “It is hard to imagine any other interventions that could yield such dramatic benefits in so short a span of time.”
In November of last year, the Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) passed a motion to campaign for the replacement of animal-based products with “similarly-priced, healthy, ethically and sustainably sourced plant-based alternatives”.
Proposed by second-year PPES class representative László Molnárfi and seconded by the union’s Environmental Officer Sam Foley, the motion said that “as Ireland’s leading university, we should provide leadership and raise our profile as a sustainability-oriented university prepared to play its part in ameliorating catastrophic climate change and biodiversity loss”.
It had been previously agreed that an outright ban on animal-based products would exclude students with specific dietary requirements, therefore the motion will instead see TCDSU lobby the university catering service “to ensure that all foodstuff in the catering service is audited with a climate-first approach”.
