Jaclyn Figg
Staff Writer
Not everyone has the same diet regimen, in fact the majority of people in the United States view the eating of meat as essential to their diet, but perhaps a plant-based diet is an equal alternative.
Studies show adopting a vegetarian diet is becoming increasingly popular, with around six to eight million adults in the US removing all meat from their diets.
People are drawn into a plant-based diet for varying reasons, some for animal wellbeing, health, allergies, to avoid antibiotics and hormones used for livestock, religious reasons or to avoid excessive waste of environmental resources from livestock.
Morgan Betts, a second-year biochemistry student recently decided to become vegetarian, adopting the lifestyle as of January this year. She decided to cut meat out of her diet due to an allergy to red meat and a dislike for poultry.
Regarding the food at Rendezvous she said “I’ve never gone hungry. They offer a vegetarian bagel and it’s delicious, there’s also a tofu dish that’s really good. Turner also has a lot of vegetarian options, and so I’m pretty impressed.”
Betts believes there’s an adequate variety of vegetarian dishes offered at ISU.
“I prefer the plant-based diet as a result of the awareness I have accumulated through my experiences at Idaho State University,” said Sarah Bartholf, an ISU student pursuing her master’s degree in health education.
Bartholf explained when getting her undergrad she was surrounded by many people she admired, friends as well as professors, and many of these people strictly limited their animal product intake. She ultimately decided to adhere to a vegan lifestyle because of the harmful effects an animal-based diet has on the environment.
“Idaho State University has made efforts to provide plant-based meal or snack options for those who seek them,” said Bartholf. “Though I believe their efforts could be improved upon by making these options more widely and regularly available.”
Bartholf doesn’t eat on campus very often because she likes to limit the amount of waste she creates, and according to her, eating on campus requires the use of wasteful packaging and utensils. Instead she packs her lunch from home in a re-usable container with re-usable utensils. Furthermore, Bartholf challenges those who do eat on campus to try and recycle as much as they can from their lunches.
“Most people don’t know that the single most damaging thing we can do to our planet is continue demanding animal products,” said Bartholf.
Alisa Lundeen, a nursing student at ISU, opted for the vegetarian lifestyle due to the animal abuse livestock encounter and for her love of animals.
Lundeen mentioned a video she watched from the wife of a dairy farmer; the wife talked about cows’ babies being taken away from their mothers and fed formula, followed by the mothers crying about it. This motivated her to cut down, in hopes to eliminate dairy from her diet.
“Honestly I had a lot of motivation because I became more aware and knowledgeable about what’s going on in animal care and abuse,” said Lundeen.
According to Lundeen even the egg industry is cause to extreme abuse towards chickens.
Lundeen usually prefers to pack her lunch with healthy snacks to keep her going throughout the day such as raw nuts, Kind Bars, carrots and apples.
Ultimately, a person’s diet is of their own choosing. For some, consumption of meat will always be a part of life, but there are others who have found reason to cut it out of their diet in belief it’s leading to a better lifestyle for them.
“It is painful to see the lack of awareness our culture has with matters of the environment,” said Bartholf, adding, “I have experienced much satisfaction by way of improving my overall health, reducing my carbon footprint as well as saving money in the process of choosing to live a plant based lifestyle.”
