By P. Sarojini
LONDON, United Kingdom (CWBN)_ An Indian-origin student Vihan Jain from the university’s Worcester College is heading a meat-free campaign in the Oxford University. The campaign’s goal was to ban beef and lamb in the university’s catering services. Vihan along with two fellow students joined the university’s student union and urged them to lobby for the meat-free campus.
The ban on beef and lamb inside the university premises is an attempt to bring down the university’s greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, the Oxford University student union is leading the campaign to support meat-free campus. They will campaign around the university and colleges focusing on meat reduction and finally removing it from the campus.
The mission of the campaign stated that as a pioneer in education, Oxford University should contribute to climate change as well. It read, “As the UK’s premier university, the nation looks to Oxford for leadership, but Oxford has shown a lack of leadership in addressing climate change”. Further it read, “The banning of beef and lamb at university-catered events and outlets is a feasible and effective strategy to help the university meet its revised 2030 goal”.
Criticisms arrived on its way stating that this act of banning beef and lamb would end up affecting local economy. In response to these criticisms, Vihan addressed ‘The Oxford Student’ publication saying, “alternative food offerings can be sourced from local enterprises and can therefore contribute to the local economy, but ‘eat local’ can be a deceptive piece of advice”.
A recent study conducted by the Oxford University says that if we aim to control the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 °C or 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, then the system of what food we choose to eat, the amount of food we eat, the amount of food wasted and the ways of food production need to change rapidly by 2050. The lead author of the paper Dr Michael Clark from the Oxford Martin School and Nuffield Department of Population Health said, “The good news is, there are many achievable ways rapidly to reduce food emissions if they are acted on quickly. These include both raising crop yields and reducing food loss and waste, but the most important is for individuals to shift towards predominantly plant-based diets”.
One of the goals of University’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy is to reduce the carbon emissions and biodiversity impact of the university’s food system. This also aims to achieve net zero carbon by 2035 and ultimately work on the global climate change challenges and biodiversity loss.
A spokesperson for Oxford University shared the university’s future plans on reducing carbon emissions. He said, “The university is currently consulting on a draft sustainability strategy which will be approved next year and includes proposals to reduce the carbon and ecological impact of the food it supplies. These policies will be further developed in the light of the consultation response.”
Earlier, the University of Cambridge, London School of Economics (LSE), Goldsmiths and the University of London banned the sale of beef and lamb in their campus outlets. Following the ban on beef and lamb in the campus, the University of Cambridge reported a 33 per cent reduction in carbon emissions per kilogram of food purchased and a 28 per cent reduction in land use per kilogram of food purchased.
Edited by Elishya Perera
