More than 80 professors and researchers at Italian universities: “We need more sustainable canteens”
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More than 80 professors and researchers from 26 Italian universities have signed up to the open letter promoted by LessForMorethe sustainable food project by Being Animalswhich asks to support the request of over 8,000 Italian students for more sustainable university canteens.
The role of university canteens is crucial: with a potential catchment area of 1.8 million enrolled in Italian universities, lunch in the canteen represents an unparalleled opportunity for intervention to improve public health, curb the climate crisis, achieve objectives of the 2030 Agenda and educate on proper nutrition.
The letter calls for a transition process to be undertaken in university canteens with the aim of making 50% of the menus vegetable-based, in line with the One Health approach. The initiative is connected to the campaign Canteens for the Climate promoted by MenoPerPiù, which in October launched a petition to ask for more vegetable menus in Italian universities to curb the climate crisis.
In 2022 MenoPerPiù collaborated with theUniversity of Florence to promote low environmental impact food, creating a vegetable menu for an experimentation evening at the canteen of Novoli. Serving plant-based food to 250 people resulted in a saving of 439 kg of CO2 compared to the traditional menu, with a 75% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Similar experience that was repeated just this week, on the occasion of Green Week of the University of Florence in view of the Earth Day, with a 100% vegetable dinner served on the evening of April 19 to 450 people. Also in this case the choice of a plant-based menu resulted in a 60% saving of CO2eq compared to the original menu and 20% of water, equal to 2591 km by car (Florence-Berlin round trip by car) and drinking water for one year for 133 people.
These initiatives demonstrate how a more sustainable diet has benefits for health and the environment, as well as on the overall sustainability of the food system.
According to scientific studies, animal protein production exploits 83% of global agricultural land, providing only 18% of caloric needs and 37% of protein needsand at the same time, the livestock sector it is responsible for approximately 15% of climate-altering gas emissions, a significant consumption of water resources (which also leads to a critical situation at a national level, relating drought and the water needed to irrigate fields cultivated with animal feed) , of the generation of atmospheric particulate matter, of the loss of biodiversity and ofpollution of land and groundwater with nitrates and heavy metals.
If richer countries like Italy reduced theirs meat consumption by at least half, the agricultural sector would cut its emissions by 61%, and less land would be used to grow soybeans and other feedstuffs. An area larger than the entire European Union could return to its natural state, with wild plants and trees capable of capturing at least
100 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2100
“By making a transition towards just and sustainable food systems, with plant-based menus, Italian universities and related bodies will not only ensure a future for their students, but they will also be able to do their part to guarantee it for the rest of humanity, of animals and the planet.” explains Valentina Tagliettifood policy manager of Being Animals and MenoPerPiù.
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“Examples like Berlin, Cambridge, Goldsmith And University of London, where new menus with a lower environmental impact are already being tested, indicate a clear way forward. With this letter we wanted to show that it’s not just students who ask for attention to the environment in canteen menus and that it’s time to take action, and we will be ready to accompany and support all universities interested in making their catering increasingly sustainable ” concludes Taglietti.
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