Club goes green by going vegan
In line with the recent trend toward environmentally- and wallet-friendly practices like using energy efficient light bulbs, taking shorter showers, recycling, driving a hybrid car or using fabric grocery bags, USU’s Vegan News Club takes a student-friendly approach to going green.
Going vegan is the best way to go green, according to club president Eden Williams, a sophomore majoring in dietetics.
“We need students to know that you don’t have to ‘break the bank’ to help the environment,” she said.
Williams said she believes the health benefits and the cost benefits outweigh the luxury of a steak meal or a charred burger.
“It’s really cost efficient. I usually only spend fifteen to twenty dollars on food a week,”said Andrew Izatte, a freshman and vegan majoring in religious studies.
Williams said she became interested in nutrition when she first learned of animal abuse that was happening in large corporations where mass production of animals is necessary to feed the growing meat and dairy demand. She said she feels that students need to become aware of where their food is coming from and understand that they can make a change in the way the animals are treated.
A recent study done by the organization Action for Animals found that 95 percent of eggs come from hens that are kept in ‘battery cages,’ which are wired cages roughly the size of a folded newspaper, causing the chicken’s feet to grow around the wire floors and making them completely immobile. Izatte said even hens that are considered “free-range” have their beaks cut off to prevent cannibalism and injury from the stress-induced fighting. Izatte said this treatment, and the mal-treatment of other animals that are mass-produced, is the main fire behind this group’s work.
“It’s the way animals are treated, not their property status,” Izatte said. He said the club discussed how owning an animal wasn’t what they were fighting against, it is an opposition to the way the animals were being treated in big corporations.
Williams said the club’s goal is to inform students at USU of animal mal-treatment that is taking place, and let students know that there is a way to eat healthy, delicious foods, without eating the processed foods made with such animals.
“There are all sorts of tasty alternatives out there,” Williams said. “Smith’s has a vegetarian section with lots of substitution options that include substitutions for eggs, milk, and even meat.”
For some students, the switch to veganism didn’t start out as an ethical issue. Freshman Jessica Bartell said, “I never really ate red meat. Then I saw animal rights films and the switch was easy. Although, it’s easier to be a vegetarian when you’re already a starving college student.”
According to the club’s mission statement is to promote and educate students on the treatment of animals. They commit to helping people become aware of what’s really in their burger that they grabbed from the Hub, and how it got there.
Williams said members of Vegan News go out on campus with the approach that students are free to eat what they want, and they are not trying to impose a new lifestyle on students, they just want students to “eat responsibly,” to know where their food is coming from, and be aware of what it takes to get that chicken into the packages at local grocery stores.
– jessica.black@aggiemail.usu.edu