As global temperatures soar, polar ice caps melt, and climate change-induced natural disasters become all too common, the question of how to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions is an increasingly urgent one. It is a question that individuals, nations, and organisations must endeavour to answer, including the UK’s universities.
The University of Edinburgh is a complex, sprawling organisation, so finding places to cut down on emissions is a complicated, often politicised problem. Now, one idea is gaining particular prominence thanks to a growing national movement: the University should go plant-based.
The group leading the charge is Plant-Based Universities (PBU). PBU was founded in 2021 and has grown to include 74 universities across nine countries, successfully securing plant-based commitments from 20 of them. It has the support of hundreds of academics and students, as well as politicians, including Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski.
So, what is being proposed? PBU campaigns for universities to commit to 100 per cent of their catering being plant-based — meaning no meat or animal products would be on the menu. They argue that the cultural and scientific prominence of universities means they are perfectly placed to lead the way in reducing our consumption of animal products, thereby cutting harmful greenhouse gas emissions.
Globally, the agriculture industry emits around five billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year, with emissions from livestock making up well over half this amount. A 2019 study found that if the UK were to reforest land used for pasture, it could offset up to nine years’ worth of British greenhouse gas emissions, bringing the nation in line with the commitments made in the Paris Agreement.
Across the world, agriculture takes up a total area five times the size of the United States. With 80 per cent of this land devoted to livestock, it is evident that a reduction in the consumption of animal products would have a substantial impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The University of Edinburgh runs over a dozen food outlets across the city, offering snacks and meals to the nearly 50,000 students and 18,000 staff who work at the University. If all of these outlets provided solely plant-based food, it would significantly reduce the amount of animal products being consumed in the city, as well as provoke debate amongst students and the wider public.
In 2022, Stirling became the first university in the UK to commit to a complete transition to plant-based catering in its student union food outlets. Similar plans followed from universities such as Birmingham, Cambridge, and UCL.
The University of Edinburgh has considered the idea before. In 2023, the Edinburgh University Students’ Association held a vote on proposals for all its venues to go plant-based by 2027. The motion was soundly rejected, with only 19 per cent of the 812 students present voting for it.
Criticism has come from many, including the campaign group Countryside Alliance, which protested vigorously against such plans. The group — which promotes hunting, shooting, and farming — went so far as to call Stirling’s student union a “dictatorship,” and lobbied student bodies at Edinburgh University before the 2023 vote to prevent the motion from being passed.
The main source of criticism is that importing fruit and vegetables is worse for the environment than eating meat reared in the UK. In the words of a Countryside Alliance spokesman: “How can an avocado flown in from South America have eco-superiority over a piece of grass-fed beef from a local farm?”
This argument, while sounding logical, doesn’t measure up. In a 2019 study, Oxford University scientists found that the greenhouse gas emissions caused by farming livestock far outweigh those from transporting goods across the globe. The same study found that if the average household removed red meat and dairy from their diet for just one day a week, it “would achieve the same as having a diet with zero food miles.”
There’s no doubt this idea will sound radical to many, and some will even feel their freedoms are being infringed upon. But the existential threat climate change poses to humanity is undeniable, and drastic action may be needed. Whether the University of Edinburgh decides to go down this route or not, this is certainly a conversation worth having.
Image by Isabel Beiboer for The Student