UCLA Dining Sustainability

UCLA Dining Sustainability Proposal

By: Alison Partie, Anndrea Nelson, Lan Yang, Mason Gamble

Each day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forested land, 20 pounds of CO2 equivalent, and one animal’s life.

The livestock industry accounts for more global greenhouse (GHG) emissions than any other; yet, plant-based food diets are a largely ignored solution to climate change and sustainability. The negative externalities of the livestock industry are widespread and manifest across health, environmental, and economic sectors. This is mostly due to the affordability of low quality meat products. The affordability of animal products stems from the unethical economical shortcuts mass meat providers implement in their “care” of livestock and animals. However, market prices do not reflect the true costs that are imposed by means of their production. Animal-derived food production and consumption damages our health, economy, environment, and ethics. David Robinson Simon, author of Meatonomics, has the calculated the external cost for every dollar sold of meat, fish, eggs, or dairy, to be $1.70.

The award-winning UCLA Dining Services are nationally recognized for their quality and innovation and have implemented many initiatives to cater to a variety of health and diet needs while considering food sourcing and waste management. Our team’s goal is to enhance the plant-based food initiatives at UCLA Dining Services, which will help to reduce their environmental impact, increase economic efficiency, and initiate a sustainable food program that educates the student population on sustainable food choices.

To accomplish this, we suggest displaying additional information to the menu. Specifically, we suggest adding the water requirement of the menu item, as well as the emissions required to produce each menu item. With this increased transparency, students will easily be able to compare the environmental costs of different menu items and make a choice that aligns with their values. Secondly, we suggest implementing one day once a week that serves every meal completely free of meat products (including eggs and dairy). This will significantly reduce UCLA Dining’s (and therefore the University’s) carbon and water footprint, thereby pushing them closer to achieving the UC-wide goal of sourcing 20% of food sustainably by 2020.