Following a similar action by Goldsmiths, University of London, the University of Coimbra in Portugal will ban beef from campus dining halls.
The ban will be implemented in January 2020, and is an attempt to make the university “the first carbon-neutral Portuguese university,” according to school Rector Amilcar Falcao.
The beef will be replaced by “other nutrients that will be studied,” and the rector claims the ban is a way of decreasing what is the “source of the greatest CO2 production in animal meat production.”
Typically, 20 tons of beef were consumed each year at 14 university dining areas.
The university will also replace plastic products with metal, and disposable utensils with wood and paper straws.
“We are living in a time of climate emergency and we have to put a brake on this announced environmental catastrophe,” Falcao said.
