Berlin’s university canteens go almost meat-free as students prioritise climate | Hacker News Reader

Berlin’s university canteens go almost meat-free as students prioritise climate

theguardian.com

18 pointsjlelse14 comments

The quality of the meat in Berlin's canteens is low. The meals are more expensive and the serving sizes are smaller. Even before this move I saw no reason to eat anything with meat there. BTW: There is already a vegetarian/vegan canteen at the Freie Universität, it's called "Veggie No 1" [1].

[1] https://www.stw.berlin/en/dining-facilities/mensa-fu-veggie-...

Wait, what? "Almost meat-free" meaning "there's always meat on the menu"? At the same prices?

I'm asking because Swiss universities are getting flak for gasp charging more for dishes containing meat (compared to vegetarian dishes) [0] and going completely meat-free [1]

[0] https://www.watson.ch/schweiz/z%C3%BCrich/357579907-fleisch-...

[1] https://www.unilu.ch/news/der-zfv-betreibt-neu-die-uniph-men...

From what I can tell it means far less meals with meat.

When I was studying in Berlin the larger canteens had several different meals to choose from + salad and soups on any given day. Of those about half had meat in them (if my memory serves). I assume they want to reduce this number.

According to welt.de they want to reduce the meat and fish to about 4% of the food offered [1].

[1] https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article233418943/Klimaschutz...

Dairy is almost as bad as beef & lamb in terms of carbon footprint [1][2] - see the charts. It'd make a lot more sense to use chicken or pork.

[1] https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local [2] https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food?cou...

In the long run, making meat less appealing to consumers and encouraging more vegetarian recipes is a good way to reduce emissions. A tax on meat wouldn't surprise me.

However, I see this as a clear sign that the next generation will bear the brunt of the environmental sacrifices as we keep indulging in our unsustainable habits.

The sorry state of the news business can be directly measured by articles about canteen food in Berlins universities.

As with a lot of things Berlin does, this might be about saving money. The UK did that too, they replaced meat with Quorn for the same reason. That is actually quite tasty if spiced up correctly. Sadly not available in Germany anymore, probably due to low demand.

Of course people understandably complained because they were led to believe they were served meat.

There's a huge movement for environmentalism among young people in Berlin. There's a good chance the assertion made is accurate, despite meat not really being a large cause.

There are also 16.000 kebab shops in Berlin.

I can't imagine the number is that high, not many people mainlining kebab. There are also a lot of vegan kebab places too.

Please, anybody stop all this nonsense...

By nonsense you mean the monster we call "meat production" ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_p...

Please make other people stop cooking and selling food without meat?

Idk meat is tasty. I'm sure there are other more effective paths to take.

It's all about quantities. Here in Germany I see people eating meat 2 to 3 times a day every day of the week. Most of it is cheap low quality processed meat.

Going 100% vegetarian isn't going to solve all problems but reducing meat consumption in general would definitely help.

They always give you the argument "bu-bu-but we evolved to be omnivores" ok buddy, but you didn't evolve to eat 500gr of meat every single day of your life either

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