The global “Meatless Monday” campaign has made its way to Dobbs Ferry, with Masters hosting a modification of the event each week in the dining hall.

Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, working in collaboration with the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health since 2003. The initiative has reached almost 100 school districts, with a goal of reducing global meat consumption by 15 percent, thus improving our personal health and the health of the Earth’s ecosystems.

Unbeknownst to many, meat consumption is one of the main contributing factors of the deterioration of the Earth’s ecosystems. As explained by senior EFFECT leadership member, Ben Stein, “Meat consumption is actually a huge problem because it takes so much water and energy to raise a cow, let alone a pasture full of cattle.” He continued, “It’s an opt-in process, meaning all you have to do is pledge not to eat meat for one day to limit the amount of water and energy we use to produce meat,” Stein said. According to foodtank.com the production of a single pound of beef uses 1800 gallons of water, meaning that a single day of reduced beef consumption could save tens of thousands of gallons of water.

General Manager of Brock, Lee Bergelson, explained the introduction of Masters’ version of Meatless Monday. “There was a conversation that took place recently at one of our food committee meetings with EFFECT and the conclusion that was reached was rather than institute Meatless Mondays, which might alienate some people from embracing the positive concept behind the practice, that it would be better to create a program where club members could share the benefits and virtues of reducing meat consumption with their peers and Masters faculty.”

Meatless Monday will work differently at Masters than other schools, as vegetarian food options are already available. Brock and EFFECT decided to make Meatless Monday an opt-in process, so they are able to obtain the exact number of students participating, which will then allow them to calculate the environmental impact of the event, in terms of how much energy and water was saved. The signup sheet is posted on the bottom floor of the dining hall during lunch on Mondays, and it is important to sign your name if you chose to participate in Meatless Monday so EFFECT can compile accurate data on how many resources were saved on that day.