Harvard Students Launch Eat-Less-Meat Initiative

According to student newspaper The Crimson, Harvard University’s Environmental Action Committee has brought national campaign “Veguary Challenge” into the school’s dining halls as an initiative that challenges its fellow students to reduce meat consumption during the month of February. The purpose of the campaign is to educate students about the negative environmental impact of meat consumption. “We’d like to raise enough awareness of the issue that students will continue to be conscious of their meat consumption beyond the month of February,” EAC co-chairman Naomi G. Asimow said. In 2016, “Veganuary”—launched in 2014 by Jane Land and Matthew Glover to reduce meat consumption in the month of January—gained traction with the number of participants skyrocketing from 3,000 in 2015 to this year’s total of more than 23,000. In support of the campaign, Harvard School of Public Health professor Frank B. Hu stated, “Dietary changes are certainly among the most promising leverage we have as individuals to reduce our environmental footprints.”