October 1st was World Vegetarian Day, a great day to celebrate a meatless lifestyle and its benefits. The vegetarian diet and lifestyle are widely held worldwide with 8% of the world population identifying as vegetarian.

Historically, people have adopted vegetarianism for religious and cultural reasons. But today, many are embracing the lifestyle for health, environmental and ethical reasons. A vegetable-rich diet holds nutritional value as it’s high in fiber, magnesium, unsaturated fat.

Further, such a diet is more environmentally conscious due to the amount of fossil fuels it takes to produce meat. Many vegetarians who cite ethical reasons for going vegetarian dislike the inhumane practices of the meat industry.

Overall, vegetarianism has become more mainstream, with many restaurants and businesses developing meatless options for consumers. Recently, Burger King announced plans to phase in plant-based chicken nuggets, a successor to their popular impossible burger.

Mason Spiderman Wittmaier, a sophomore, is a vegetarian who adopted the lifestyle at the beginning of 2021. He cited ethical reasons for vegetarianism as he believes the industrial farming of animals is unethical and will be frowned upon in the future.

“I don’t need to eat animals to live,” Wittmaier said. “When I eat meat that is produced unethically I’m choosing personal taste over the quality of lives of animals and supporting unethical production.”

Mason’s favorite go-to vegetarian food may surprise some people: Taco Bell. He says that Taco Bell has many vegetarian options and his favorite is the spicy potato soft taco. He also substitutes black beans for meat as an alternate source of protein. Eating out at restaurants is not too challenging, he explains further, and he selects restaurants that have good veggie-based dishes such as many Asian restaurants. Mason also enjoys making vegetarian alternatives to traditionally meat-based dishes, such as chicken sandwiches with fake chicken patties. 

The hardest part of vegetarianism for Mason is time, money and finding good protein sources. As a Jewell student, Mason says that more vegetarian and plant-based options in the Cafe would be appreciated since sometimes his only option is pasta or salad. For anyone who wants to go vegetarian, Mason suggests starting with reducing meat intake overall and gradually going meatless by exploring protein alternatives.

This kind of repression has clearly left some students angsty. Even though many students have nothing profound to say and in fact wouldn’t engage in large-scale political movements regularly, the fact that they can’t makes the idea much more attractive. Some students have even taken to civil disobedience, albeit unsuccessfully.

Thursday, March 24, five masked people staged a sit-in in the dining hall. The protest lasted six minutes. The group held signs displaying phrases including: “Meat is Murder”; “Would you eat your cat with barbecue sauce?!”; “Animals are people, too”; and, my personal favorite, “NO cheez, pleez.”

Apparently, this anonymous group is morally opposed to the eating of meat, dairy, eggs and other animal byproducts. It is still unclear how they meet their daily protein needs.

One of the protesters allowed me to ask him some questions. However, he refused to reveal his identity.

“I just don’t understand why people don’t understand why meat is bad, you know?! We just love the environment and animals and, honestly, human rights, you know,” he said.

I asked if he was aware of any arguments for free-range or small scale farming and how they reduce the environmental and animal rights necessities of veganism.

“I don’t know. Honestly, usually, if people start to disagree with me, I just say, ‘But have you given anything up for what YOU believe?!’” he said. “Like sometimes people try to start asking me what my political views are, like how I feel about gun control or whatever, so I just say, ‘Well, I’m vegan.’”

While the people involved in the sit-in continue to refuse to come forward, there are some conspiracy theories as to who they are floating around campus.

“I mean, I only know five people who would actually admit to being vegan,” said Erin Melton, sophomore and well-known campus carnivore.

One of the five protesters tried to throw red paint on a fellow student asking for a hamburger, but she was too weak to lift the bucket.

All photos by Chandler Eaton