BREAKING NEWS: In a bumper week for Animal Rebellion affiliated actions, student activists this morning dropped banners at three of London’s leading universities to raise awareness of the link between animal agriculture and the climate crisis as part of the Plant-based Universities campaign.

“Meat & Dairy = Climate Crisis” read the banners currently adorning buildings belonging to University College London (UCL), King’s College London and London Metropolitan University. The student activists responsible are also demanding that their universities transition to “100 per cent just and sustainable” plant-based menus in cafes and restaurants by the end of the next academic year.

The students, all of whom attend the prestigious universities, also let off smoke flares at key locations, but said they would only remain in place for one hour before peacefully dispersing.

"It's simple, universities have to act on the climate crisis and that begins with their menus. We know that industries like meat, fish, and dairy are driving climate collapse, deforestation, and ocean dead zones,” said Sofia Carolina Fernandes Pontes, a student at London Metropolitan.

“This is all whilst we produce enough to feed ten billion people, yet have hundreds of millions starving all over the world because of our woefully immoral food systems. Universities must transition to fully just and sustainable plant-based catering by the 2023-24 academic year in order to secure a livable world for the students they are educating."

Today’s action also draws attention to Animal Rebellion’s Plant-based Universities campaign launched in January and now active at more than 20 universities across the UK. Writing for Surge at the time, Animal Rebellion’s Vaania Kapoor Achuthan said: 

“Universities have a large cultural capital in our society, and their shifting has a great influence over the broader society’s ethical views and sustainable practices. This is particularly because they educate the leaders of our future society and because they are the very institutions where much of our understanding about the climate crisis has emerged from.

“Currently, universities act to legitimise the industries of animal agriculture and fishing, and this needs to change. If we can convince universities to adopt fully plant-based menus, it will speed up the tide of this urgently needed culture shift.”

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Pressure will be mounting on universities and local authorities that govern schools to adopt plant-based food initiatives that tally with sustainability goals. Earlier this month, as reported by Surge there at the time, Oxfordshire County Council voted in favour of a motion to switch all its meetings to plant-based menus and bring in more vegan-friendly options at schools. Oxford council had in 2019 declared a climate emergency, prompting the motion from Green councillor Ian Middleton.

In a similar way, all three universities have clear sustainability goals, said Animal Rebellion in a statement. “All of them hint at plant-based options being sustainable and desirable, so this begs the question: why not adopt fully just and sustainable plant-based options?”

“The banners dropped at UCL's Gower Street Main Campus, KCL's Bush House, and London Metropolitan's Holloway Campus Library are a clear message to these institutions from their students,” said the campaign group. “The message is that students will not allow their universities to stand by and be complicit in the ongoing collapse of the climate, destruction of human and animal life, and destruction of their futures.”

Dev Vyas, a student at UCL, added: "Universities have a duty of care to their students. By continuing to ignore their own studies about how unsustainable meat, fishing, and dairy industries are, they are burying their heads in the sand on this.

“We, students from a massive variety of backgrounds, experiences, and studies, refuse to stand by and watch our universities commit climate, social, and animal injustices. Today thousands of young people are striking for climate change and we fight alongside them for justice worldwide."

Interested in joining the Plant-based Universities campaign? Click here to fill out the form.

Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.

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