Why It Matters

NC State promotes sustainability, student well-being, and innovation, but our dining halls don’t fully reflect these values. Expanding plant-based dining would provide sustainable, nutritious, and ethically produced meals while accommodating the growing demand for plant-based options.

As a leading institution in agriculture and research, NC State already recognizes the benefits of plant-based food through its investments in initiatives like the Plants for Human Health Institute, The Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein, and The NC Food Innovation Lab. A plant-based dining hall would be a natural extension of these commitments, aligning campus dining with the university’s existing values, and furthering NC State's reputation as a leading institute in sustainability.

What We’re Asking For

We urge NC State Dining Services to create an all-plant-based dining hall that offers diverse, delicious, and accessible meals for all students.

Why Plant-Based

Sustainability:

Plant-based foods have a significantly lower carbon footprint and require fewer resources like freshwater and land, allowing for significant carbon sequestration opportunities. 1,2,3,4
Reducing reliance on animal agriculture helps prevent deforestation and biodiversity loss. 5,6
 

Food Security:

Animal protein requires 9-34 calories of feed to produce 1 calorie of meat. With the global population projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, traditional animal agriculture cannot scale efficiently to the growing protein and calorie demand.
Expanding plant-based food production and availability is essential to ensure global food security.   7, 8
 

Health:

Plant-based foods contain no cholesterol, are high in fiber, and generally have lower amounts of saturated fat.
Plant-rich diets can lower the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. 9, 10, 11
Public Health:

Plant-based foods do not require any antibiotics in their production. Animal agriculture uses 80% of antibiotics produced, leading to antibiotic resistance; an issue that kills 35,000 Americans a year. 12, 13
Animal farming is one of the leading causes of zoonotic diseases, so reducing consumption of animal products and increasing consumption of plant-based food reduces the risk of zoonotic diseases. 14
Animal Welfare

Over 80 billion animals are killed a year for food, with up to 99% factory-farmed in the US. These animals experience immense suffering through confined and unhygienic living conditions, bodily mutilation, and mental and physical pain. 15, 16, 17
Plant-based foods eliminate the need for animal suffering and exploitation.