Three Big Ten college universities have committed percentages of their menus to be plant-based by specific dates.
These commitments are a result of partnerships with animal activist group Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
Most recently, Penn State University committed to having 35% of its entrees be plant-based by 2025. The University of Michigan committed to converting over half (55%) of its entrees to plant-based and the University of Wisconsin-Madison established a plant-based target of 30%, both by 2025.
Additionally, food service provider Sodexo recently announced its plans to convert 50% of its university menus to plant-based by 2025, also through partnership with HSUS.
Why colleges?
Its obvious that HSUS is targeting Generation Z (Gen Z). According to a survey completed by health company Medical Inspiration Daily for Stronger Society (MIDDS) in March 2023, Gen Z is driving the vegan trend in the U.S. Uncoincidentally, Gen Z is also the predominate generation attending college right now.
What’s interesting about that same survey is that it found only 17% of Gen Z vegans converted to the food choice because they don’t want to eat animal products. This implies that most Gen Z vegans aren’t vegan because they don’t support animal agriculture.
This information should be another driver for the agricultural sector to target Gen Z and remind them of how the poultry and egg industries will help solve food insecurity globally.
Also, I think it is worth mentioning that two of these three colleges that have partnerships are land grant universities.
Land-grant institutions originated from the U.S. government granting states federal land as long as they established a college that offers programs related to agriculture, engineering and family/consumer sciences. Land grants were meant to benefit agriculture and agribusiness.
So, is there a fundamental contradiction with land-grant universities making plant-based commitments? Would it prevent them from ever committing the majority of their menus to be plant-based?
