The pressure to go plant-based and why you should say no
Tuesday 14-11-2023 - 15:49
We understand there is growing pressure from student officers and some campaign groups to change menus in your operation to be solely plant-based.
As a wholesale approach, this wouldn't be in line with the recommendations and insight we've collated from sustainability experts. We advise that a strategy of meat reduction is in line with this guidance. Here’s why:
• Diet is hugely personal and cultural. By prescribing only plant-based options, choice is removed. Our research shows that student consumers will simply go somewhere else that respects their dietary choice leaving you with fewer customers to engage with.
• Intensively farmed meat and monocrop agriculture are both damaging to human and soil health through the overuse of antibiotics and pesticides. Both approaches need radical transformation. Most agricultural crops in the UK are intensively farmed monocrops, a process that can render the land unusable for a decade. A transformation to regenerative farming methods is needed. This can only happen over time. Moving to better quality UK meat, slow-reared using traditional methods is where we need to be.
• Reducing the amount of meat in menus and increasing the plant-based elements on the plate, ensuring your dishes use better quality meat and allowing menu personalisation are approaches that we support in line with industry experts.
• There is concern about the nutritional density of some plant-based options that are not particularly healthy, and in some cases, are not sustainable. The nutritional density of intensively farmed monocrops is also under scrutiny.
• Nutritional guidance advises following the Eatwell Guide. The Carbon Trust undertook a carbon footprint assessment comparing current intakes (National Diet and Nutrition Survey) with the new Eatwell Guide and found that if the population could adopt the new dietary recommendations, the overall carbon footprint would be reduced by almost a third (32%): 31% reductions in GHGe, 17% reduction in water use and a whopping 34% reduction in land use.
There are further resources on NUS Connect including the articles below from our partners SOS. You can also join the sustainability discussion group that takes place on the last Friday of every month by emailing jo.heuston@nus.org.uk
