I work at a university in China, and with the help of some vegetarian students, I’ve been trying to encourage others to eat less meat. However, I’ve found it challenging to engage students who aren’t already interested in vegetarianism.
For instance, last semester, I organized a Meatless Monday Lunch every week. The same group of people I already knew would attend, but it didn’t attract new participants. I even offered free lunches to students to make it more appealing, but that didn’t seem to help.
I also hosted a documentary screening about the health effects of eating meat. Attendance was very low—fewer than 10 people showed up—and most of them seemed distracted, spending their time on their phones.
On the bright side, our canteen has improved its plant-based options with our help. I think this may encourage more people to try them. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the canteen’s data, so I’m not sure if this idea actually worked. Personally it did make eating at the canteen a bit more pleasant.
I work at a university in China, and with the help of some vegetarian students, I’ve been trying to encourage others to eat less meat. However, I’ve found it challenging to engage students who aren’t already interested in vegetarianism.
For instance, last semester, I organized a Meatless Monday Lunch every week. The same group of people I already knew would attend, but it didn’t attract new participants. I even offered free lunches to students to make it more appealing, but that didn’t seem to help.
I also hosted a documentary screening about the health effects of eating meat. Attendance was very low—fewer than 10 people showed up—and most of them seemed distracted, spending their time on their phones.
On the bright side, our canteen has improved its plant-based options with our help. I think this may encourage more people to try them. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the canteen’s data, so I’m not sure if this idea actually worked. Personally it did make eating at the canteen a bit more pleasant.
That sounds very interesting!
Making things more pleasant for vegetarians and vegans is a good thing to do, even if it does not change other people’s behavior too much.
In the long-run, we want to make vegetarianism seem just as “nice, natural, and normal” (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666315001518) as eating meat.
I think things like a Meatless Monday Lunch are very helpful for that.