Choosing plant-based meals more often is a win-win: you’re looking after your health in a tasty way and doing your bit for the planet. To make it easier for students on campus, we’re launching the Veggie Challenge on 11 May, where you’ll receive support and motivation for 30 days to eat a more varied diet. You’ll take part as part of a team (the Radboud team, or a team of your own choosing), and you choose your own challenge: will you go flexitarian, vegetarian or vegan? Previous results are positive: 90% of participants in the Veggie Challenge continue to eat a more plant-based diet once the 30 days are up.
You’ll then get started on 11 May using the accompanying Proveg app. Here you’ll find over 100 recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. You can also use it to track your individual environmental impact and that of your team.
With 100 participants in the Veggie Challenge, we save approximately:
A completely plant-based diet produces only half the emissions of an average diet. This is because the production of meat and dairy places a greater strain on the environment than plant-based options: it requires more energy, fertilizer, water and land. Furthermore, livestock farming causes significantly higher emissions of greenhouse gases and nitrogen.
In the Netherlands, everyone buys around 33 kilos of meat (beef, pork and chicken combined) each year. That is no less than four to six times more than the Earth can actually cope with.
Source: Milieucentraal
The Food and Beverage department is committed to providing a varied plant-based range on campus and encourages students and staff to make sustainable choices. For example, 75% of the range in the outlets currently consists of vegetarian or plant-based products.