I see that NUS is working with Friends of the Earth [FoE] on a behaviour change project to "incentivise vegetarian meal choices by students". This will provide a veggie loyalty card which offers students a free meal once they’ve purchased 6 plant-based meals.
The assumption is that this will:
"encourage students to opt for plant-based meals over those containing meat as they work towards their free meal when they eat in the canteen. By doing so, they will discover new tastes, recipes, dishes that are just as delicious and nutritious as the meat-filled meals they might be used to, encouraging them to consider changing their attitudes and habits when it comes to food."
A good idea, you might think, given that we, on average, eat too much meat for the health of the planet (and ourselves) – The World We'll Leave Behind has a chapter on this.
There is a sting in the tail of the FoE scheme, however, as the free meal reward can be a meat-based one, which seems, well, odd. It's like providing habitual dog-kickers with a can to aim at, and then, as a reward, saying that it's ok to kick the dog again. Veganistas will surely not be the only ones to disapprove ...
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