MDining’s quest for sustainability

Wednesday, January 24, 2018 // The Statement
4B
Wednesday, January 24, 2018 // The Statement 
5B

Mondays, meatless no more

E

ven when I still ate meat, 
I loved Meatless Monday. 
Saying this is much like a 
middle school student who 

openly admits to enjoying school. For 
one day, the University of Michigan’s 
East Quad Residence Hall’s dining 
hall removed meat from the premises 
and served all vegetarian and vegan 
dishes. Given the challenge, the menu 
renounced its standard meat-and-pota-
to options and served dishes like falafel 
pitas and vegan pot pie.

Unfortunately, I’m probably alone in 

saying that. Most of my peers would 
do anything to avoid Meatless Monday. 
Even my friends who lived in East Quad 
would forgo convenience and trudge 
through rain or snow to South Quad 
Residence Hall’s dining hall. On the 
other days of the week, East Quad was 
almost always packed to capacity, forc-
ing students to awkwardly share tables 
with strangers. But this flock of car-
nivores migrating away every Monday 
guaranteed a barren dining hall filled 
with a glut of seating options.

In recent years, the University as 

a whole has struggled to meet its own 

goals to reduce both waste and green-
house gas emissions. Using measure-
ments in 2006 as the baseline, the goal 
was to reduce waste by 40 percent, 
to 7,900 tons. Not only has it failed to 
do so, but it has moved in the opposite 
direction: In 2016, waste totaled 14,100 
tons, nearly 1,000 more than 2006. And 
although the University has made more 
progress reducing greenhouse gases, it 
is still 132,000 metric tons short of its 
goal.

Nevertheless, there was little trans-

parency when MDining silently aban-
doned Meatless Monday this past fall, 
causing great confusion that a quick 
Google search couldn’t fix. I thought, 
perhaps, the meat-eaters student lobby 
grew too strong to be ignored — that, 
or Tyson Foods donated $100 million 
to the School for Environment and Sus-
tainability to fund a sustainable food 
program given that MDining exclusively 
serves chicken. Granted, I’m definitely 
the only person on campus who spends 
their free time thinking about potential 
Meatless Monday conspiracy theories.

The reality is more straightforward: 

Meatless Monday was always about sus-

tainability, and MDining felt there were 
more effective measures to promote 
this rather than getting rid of meat in 
one dining hall only to have students 
migrate to meat-serving locations. So, in 
fall 2017 and without fanfare, Sustain-
able Monday took over campus-wide.
I

t’s possible that student back-
lash won MDining over. In a 
column published by The Daily 
in 2015 — titled “Meatless Mon-

days of indoctrination” — Ashley Austin 
wrote Meatless Monday eliminated stu-
dents’ freedom to choose whether or not 
to eat meat.

“The notion in itself that students’ 

access to meat should be limited over-
steps a previously established bound-
ary,” she wrote.

This sent a strong message to the 

University community: Students don’t 
like having meat taken away, and they 
will be heard. Despite my affinity for 
Meatless Monday, some of the criticism 
was warranted. There were days when 
the menus included all of the typical 
meat dishes, but with flimsy fake-meat 
swapped in. 

Elliott Rains, marketing coordinator 

of MDining, and Keith Soster, direc-
tor of Student Engagement of MDin-
ing, denied Meatless Monday had been 
a flop, stating that the new initiative 
seeks to be more impactful.

“I think one of the biggest pushbacks 

we got with Meatless Monday was 
that we were taking something away 
from people,” Rains said. “Reintroduc-
ing meat in some capacity on a Mon-
day makes it more accessible to people 
… And if you can eat something that’s 
healthy and good for you one day of the 
week, then maybe that will build posi-
tive behaviors.”

To me, this seemed like a peculiar jus-

tification. Livestock contributes to 14.5 
percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, 
more than automobiles. Cutting back on 
meat altogether is one of the most effec-
tive ways to mitigate climate change 
and promote sustainability. If serving 
meat is unsustainable, then why, in fos-
tering sustainability, would you choose 
to do so?

Yet, Soster believes MDining is play-

ing its part in reducing waste and not 
contributing to the upward trend.

All dining halls implement 100 per-

cent pre-consumer composting, which 
takes the remains of unused foods, like 
carrot peels and watermelon rinds, and 
allows them to decompose naturally. 
To complement this, MDining began 
using compostable food packaging in 
all its facilities. Even though one-third 
of campus-wide waste is food, this also 
includes units outside of the dining 
halls, like office kitchens, according to 
Soster.

“We’re the biggest department in stu-

dent life and one of the biggest ones on 
campus,” Soster said. “We have not only 
a responsibility to lead, but to give great 
examples … If we model the behavior, 
we’re hoping that others will follow.”
T

he pinnacle of MDining’s 
sustainability 
efforts, 

which expand beyond Mon-
days, lies just seven miles 

northeast of Central Campus.

Starting in fall 2017, MDining began 

buying food from the Campus Farm 
and using it in dining halls. This is 
a clear step toward fulfilling Planet 
Blue’s sometimes-vague goal of creat-
ing a more sustainable campus. Since 
the farm received its Good Agricul-
tural Practices certificate, it has sold 
8,500 pounds of food to MDining in one 
semester alone, according to LSA junior 
Connor Kippe, Business and Projects 
Manager of the Campus Farm.

When I visited the Campus Farm ear-

lier this January, it was hard to imag-
ine sprawling tomato plants and other 
lush summertime vegetables growing 
— a thick layer of snow and sub-zero 
temperatures didn’t quite set the scene. 
Regardless, they grow cold weather-
friendly spinach and kale during the 
winter months. In the fall, they store 
squash, beets and other root vegetables 
to continue selling in the offseason.

Kippe began working for the Campus 

Farm about a year ago. He works with 
nine other students on the farm who 
serve different roles curated to their 
own specific interests.

Kippe’s interest in the farm grew after 

taking classes about the impact of food 
on the environment and people, which 
inspired him to begin volunteering prior 
to his first day on the job. Regarding the 
switch from Meatless Mondays to Sus-
tainable Mondays, Kippe said there was 
a slightly heated response from vegan 

students at the University.

“I am for whatever is pragmatic,” 

Kippe, a vegetarian himself, added. “If 
doing sustainable Monday everywhere 
at most of the cafes reduces the amount 
of meat (consumption) more so than 
doing just meatless Monday, then I’m a 
fan of it.”

Kippe also serves as a student ambas-

sador for Planet Blue. I worried Planet 
Blue was the University’s mechanism 
of greenwashing; ploys that appear to 
promote sustainability without actually 
doing so. Despite the University’s luke-
warm improvement with regard to sus-
tainability, Kippe maintains Planet Blue 
is much more than a mere buzzword to 
promote sustainability.

“It’s easy to make that claim that 

Planet 
Blue 
is 
only 
greenwashing 

because lots of the things Planet Blue 
does are behind the scenes, so it doesn’t 
appear that they’re doing things even 
when they are,” he said. “The Univer-
sity’s actually trying to move in differ-
ent areas. Though, it’s having different 
success at different things.”

As for the farm’s future, Kippe pre-

dicts it will continue to grow in the 
upcoming years, potentially doubling in 
size.

“I also see us doing more educational 

work, more vocational work — this has 
given me a lot of experience for things 
that I can go and do and change in the 
future in the environmental field,” 
Kippe said. “And for my coworkers, it 
has as well.”

According to Kippe, more important 

than the farm itself is the culture it 
breeds.

“We’re creating people who are more 

able to make that change and more … 
we’re both increasing the amount of 
people in that work and also how good 
they are at doing it,” he said.

Inside one of the main greenhouse 

units, containers with microgreens — 
the equivalent of green gold due to their 
high value — are lined up side-by-side. 
30 volunteers accompany me, all helping 
plant and grow products like the micro-
greens.

LSA freshman Kellee Byard is one of 

these frequent volunteers.

“I really like meeting the new people 

that volunteer here because we’re all 
like-minded — we all like working with 
plants, the outdoors and getting our 
hands dirty,” Byard said. “I’ve done har-
vesting, we do the planting… (and) help-
ing with maintenance. It’s all fun work 
in my opinion.”

She said what makes her time spent 

at the farm most fulfilling is the impact 
she sees, and eats, on campus.

“Sometimes in the dining hall, I’ll see 

a certain fruit or veggie … that I know 
we had worked with — harvesting spin-
ach, for example,” she said. “Seeing that 
in the dining halls is super cool, and 
knowing not having to get it imported 

from somewhere far away … You’re help-
ing the environment in the sense that 
it’s local, it’s something done by stu-
dents here at Michigan.”

Annually, 300 to 400 others like 

Byard volunteer at the farm. Friends of 
the Campus Farm, a student-run orga-
nization, organizes the volunteers inde-
pendently.

Campus 
Farm 
Manager 
Jeremy 

Moghtader said there has recently been 
more student engagement on the farm, 
he believes is due to the collaboration 
with MDining.

“I’ve been impressed that U-M and 

MDining is sourcing almost now 17.8 
percent sustainable and local product 
into the halls,” he said. “These folks 
are taking whole beets, roasting them 
and slicing them to put on the salad bar. 
That kind of culinary care for taking the 
locally grown beet and preparing it like 
that shows a real passion and dedica-
tion towards sustainability and towards 
delicious food.”

Moghtader highlighted the multifac-

eted effects of food and said it is rele-
vant in everyday life.

“Food sits at this nexus of all of these 

really important environmental and 
social issues, whether it’s public health, 
the economy, climate change, biodi-
versity … All of those things are really 
impacted by the food system,” Moghtad-
er said.

As for the future of sustainability on 

campus, he is optimistic; he views the 
farm as an educational opportunity and 
source of inspiration for all.

“Having students be hopeful about 

this farm and sustainability on campus I 
think is knowing that people can engage 
and learn about the food system,” he 
said. “They can engage in it meaning-
fully… (not) just learn about it in the 
classroom but learn about it in a way 
that allows them to contribute directly 
to the institution’s sustainability.”
A

bout 9 percent of Ameri-
cans adults are vegetarian, 
according to Pew Research. 
The vegetarian population 

at the University is also small, but none-
theless passionate. LSA senior Aaron 
Brodke leads the Michigan Animal 
Respect Society (MARS), which creates 
a community for vegetarians on campus. 
Without speaking on behalf of everyone 
in MARS, Brodke explained his organi-
zation’s views toward the change from 
Meatless Monday.

“Since the change happened from one 

dining hall to the entire group of dining 
halls at the University, this could poten-
tially be a big opportunity that MARS 
would support because it continues the 
sustainability message around food, 
which for the first few years were really 
just centered around one dining hall,” 
Brodke said.

For MARS, it’s a mixed bag — it sup-

ports the wide scope of Sustainable 

Monday, while questioning the lack of 
transparency on the decision to ax its 
meatless predecessor.

“Right now there may not be as much 

clarity around what the university, or 
MDining, means around Sustainable 
Mondays, so there is some backlash 
from members that may feel that it is 
somewhat regressive by adding animal 
products back to the menus,” Brodke 
said. “Once definitions become more 
clear, it could present a good opportu-
nity for more sustainable food systems 
change at the University of Michigan.”

LSA junior Jacalyn Webster has been 

a vegan for four years. Although she is 
still relatively new to the University, 
this change from a meatless to less-meat 
standard perplexed her.

“If you’re going to call something 

sustainable, and still serve meat, they 
should be saying why meat is not a 
sustainable option,” Webster said. “If 
they’re still going to put it out, use that 
as an educational opportunity to inform 
people of what they’re eating.”

As for the switch to sourcing locally 

grown food from the Campus Farm, 
Webster viewed this as a feat.

“The closer your food is to home, the 

more sustainable and environmentally 
friendly that is.”
A

t first, MDining’s decision 
to ditch my beloved Meat-
less Monday was unsettling. 
In an age where greenwash-

ing is so pertinent, I worried this was 
nothing more than a PR campaign. Call-
ing it “Sustainable” Monday, while still 
serving meat, is like driving a gas guz-
zling truck that happens to be a hybrid 

— it’s clearly still fuel inefficient, but at 
least it’s labeled “eco-friendly.”

However, it’s clear this isn’t entirely 

the case. Despite these negative trends 
throughout the University, MDining is 
playing its part in improving the health 
of ecosystems and communities, one of 
Planet Blue’s goals created in 2011.

After my beloved dog Charlie passed 

away, I started feeling guilt anytime 
I ate meat. It was conflicting to be so 
heartbroken by the death of a dog, yet 
happily eat a bacon cheeseburger. Even-
tually, this guilt overcame me: I ditched 
meat altogether in September 2016.

Honoring 
Charlie’s 
spirit 
wasn’t 

the only factor that led to this change. 
My older brother and best friend — 
both longtime vegetarians — had been 
encouraging me for months to experi-
ment with a meatless diet. Although 
admittedly lame, the biggest source of 
inspiration came from trying to impress 
a girl I had a crush on with our “shared 
life choices.”

Since then, what has kept me from 

reverting back to my omnivorous ways 
is the meat industry’s devastating con-
tributions to climate change. I can now 
put my guilty conscience to ease; at the 
very least, I feel less guilty about some-
times taking showers that last a few 
minutes too long.

I’ll do my part in preserving human-

kind’s longevity. Being vegetarian is by 
no means a get-out-of-jail-free card. I 
can’t then drive a Hummer and leave 
lights unnecessarily on all day. But it 
definitely helps.

And, it pays respect to my late, dear 

friend (Rest in peace, Charlie).

Prashanth Panicker/Daily

Campus Farm.

by Will Stewart, Daily Arts Writer

Prashanth Panicker/Daily

Campus Farm.

