September 24, 2008

Meatless Mondays Begin September 29
Go green, starting with your plate

Photo Illustration courtesy of iStockPhoto.com

Pooja Dutt ’09, leader of this Colloquium Activity Project, which is staffed by eight additional students, says in an e-mail, “Very few people are aware of the staggering consequences of eating meat on the planet’s resources … . Much of the world’s deforestation is a result of the clearing and burning to create grazing land for livestock.

“While we're getting ‘greener’: recycling, using energy-saving light bulbs and driving fuel-efficient hybrid cars, most people are neglecting one of the most important steps toward stopping global warming: adopting a vegetarian diet.”

Dutt cites statistics that she interprets specifically for the OWU campus. “A vegetarian saves an average of 95 animals a year just by not eating meat. Which means if everyone at OWU decided to go meatless once a week, we could save over 500 animals every Monday; that’s over 7,800 animals all semester!!”

Dutt and her group invite all Ohio Wesleyan students to drop by the food court every Monday for a “hearty, healthy, meatless meal that is good for animals, good for the planet, and good for you!”

– Gretchen Hirsch