UF has a case of the Mondays.
And as the master lyricist Enrique Iglesias might say: Baby, we like it.
Today, UF will join more than 30 universities across the nation in its first (almost) Meat-Free Monday.
And don’t get your overalls and pitchforks in a bunch — Mondays won’t be totally meatless, but the Fresh Food Company and Gator Corner Dining Center on-campus cafeterias will offer more vegan options for those who want to be a little greener (and leaner).
Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer estimates if every American reduced his or her meat consumption by just 10 percent, which is less than one day per week, enough grains would be available from not being fed to factory-farmed animals to feed 60 million starving people. And those are the kind of statistics we like to hear.
We hope UF’s dining administration will take meat completely off the menu on Mondays at its dining halls in the future.
While we know it’s not our place to push a meat-free diet (our trash cans here have a fair number of Gator Dawgs boxes), we acknowledge that giving up meat for even one day a week makes a significant impact on the environment.
As one of the leading causes, according to the World Bank, of Amazon deforestation and air and water pollution, Gators can now join the fast-moving international movement to reduce, or at least slow, the environmental destruction the meat industry causes across the globe.
And we don’t think one day per week is too much to ask.And who knows — maybe the tofu will grow on you.
