Three colleges have adopted the Meat Free Mondays concept, with New, Brasenose and Jesus all introducing the scheme in some form.
The idea of the movement, started by Paul McCartney, is to highlight the impact that eating meat has on the environment in terms of the resources that farming meat takes up. New College, which passed its Meat Free
Monday’s motion on Sunday, now has a system where all students are classed as vegetarian on Mondays unless they choose to opt out.
Jesus College is the only college that passed a motion to have a completely meat-free Monday. Ross Evans, JCR President commented, “Don’t get me wrong, there was still some opposition at the end, but reasoned discussion
left little doubt which option we should take – and in the end the JCR voted pretty conclusively.” However, the motion has often caused controversy in the colleges; Magdalen had its motion to introduce Meat Free Monday’s defeated by 13 votes to 9.
Whilst the Meat Free Monday movement seems to have gained momentum it is clear students are never pleased when restrictions are placed on their choice of the most important college provision, food.
