Wageningen students protest against meatless Monday

People can cope with lots of setbacks, but there comes a time when it all becomes too much. For five Wageningen students, that moment was last Monday. The students – some dressed up as a hot dog or a cow – demonstrated against Meatless Monday by handing out meatballs on campus.

According to the campaigners, they are not against eating less meat, they just wanted to start a debate. “Meatless Monday hasn’t managed to start a debate about reducing meat consumption,” Ruben Imhof, first year student of Biotechnology explains to Resource. “This is because this measure was imposed by management and offers little background information. We want people to be well informed so that they can make a free choice.”

Limited choice

Incidentally, Meatless Monday in Wageningen is not totally meat-free. On Mondays students and staff can still order meat croquettes and meat sandwiches or fish rolls. But that’s not enough, says one of the demonstrators. “Yes, you can get a croquette or a cheese and ham toasted sandwich, for example,” says Ruben Imhof, “but the available choice is very limited. I don’t want to eat a pumpkin sandwich.”

Meatless Monday was introduced as a pilot project in May and became official in October. Why the students are only protesting against the measure now is unknown.

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