Opinion

[Letter] ‘TU Delft, pick something new to eat’

TU Delft student Suzanne Onderdelinden calls on TU Delft and all its inhabitants to pick something else to eat than animal products. She wrote this letter to the editor.

"To ignore the animal products industry in your quest for a sustainable future is close to denying that human induced climate change is a problem." (Photo: Katja Wijnands)

Another happy beginning of the year as my co-workers and I finish our shift at the Aula academic year opening with free drinks. We’ve been working to make the Unleash your Inner Superhero afternoon memorable for everyone, and now we’re hungry. Luckily, food is served.


Admittedly, my expectations have never been high when it comes to the catering services at TU Delft. I have been an ethical meat-avoider for years, but later realised that there’s much more to it than ethics. Animal products are unbelievably bad for the environment – being the single largest industrial contributor to global warming when all the components in the chain are included – and since, obviously, all animal products are part of this industry, I decided it was only logical to ditch all animal products forever.


How little I see of this train of thought at this festive drink in the Aula, where platters and platters of food are served, almost without exception containing animal products. Cheese, requiring 15 litres of milk to make just one kilogram, and almost as polluting as red meat. Shrimp, where five kilograms of bycatch are usually tossed back into the sea for every kilogram of catch. Among the bycatch are often sea turtles, dolphins and young whales, not to mention the abandoned nets that end up in the sea, killing even more marine life. And hotdogs, for which 10 times the amount of plants are needed to produce the amount served here. On top of that, they either cause air and water pollution or are placed under ‘air washers’ that filter the ammonia but that are also a massive fire hazard.


‘TU Delft seems to close its eyes to one of the biggest issues of our time’


I think highly of TU Delft that so proudly ranks itself among the top competitors for the most sustainable programme, mindset and environment. I see wonderful initiatives such as the many Dreamteams that mostly compete in sustainability-oriented competitions. The demand for courses and programmes in innovative sustainable technology is widely known and the international wind energy MSc programme is prestigious and at a high level. Only recently TU Delft proudly presented Pulse, the very first energy neutral building on campus – but at the same time, food corners were built here which serve some of the most climate non-neutral foods thinkable.


It pains me that TU Delft, that helped me become the person I am now, and the engineer I am about to become, is actually further from me than I could ever imagine. Where I was taught self-criticism, to not assume anything to be true, to think with an open mind, TU Delft seems to close its eyes to one of the biggest issues of our time. It might sound odd, but to ignore the animal products industry in your quest for a sustainable future is close to denying that human induced climate change is a problem. This is why universities such as those in Utrecht and Rotterdam have Meat-free Mondays and automatic meat-free catering for lunch meetings for example (meat is still available on request).


But, honestly, don’t take my word for it. Instead, check out the research done by CE Delft commissioned by Babette Porcelijn, author of The hidden impact. Watch Cowspiracy. Ask yourself whether soy is a good alternative (spoiler: it is if you eat it directly and not via animals). Never cease to look at both sides of the story and see which one sounds more appealing: the one taking into account modern insights or the one based on what we used to eat when we were cavemen and had no choice. We are all part of TU Delft, humans on top of cutting edge technology, and we have the power to make a change today, simply by picking something different to eat. And don’t get me wrong, I don’t think farmers are to blame here – it’s the ones who choose to ignore the issue by making plant-based food an outlier on the menu and the ones who eagerly consume animal products because they like the five-minute taste sensation.


Meanwhile, in the Aula a new tray of food is offered to us. Quinoa, orange and pomegranate seeds. These are likely all grown in Western Europe. Eyeing the tray suspiciously, the lady confirms that this indeed contains no animal products. Eagerly I take a bite – it’s delicious. Maybe there is some hope for this wonderful place of knowledge after all.


Suzanne Onderdelinden is a second year master biomedical engineering student at TU Delft.


Also read this letter: ‘Not separatiting plastic cutlery is archaic’


Opinion / Our platform is open to well written and well argued opinion articles written by students and employees of TU Delft. The maximum word count is 700. Email us at delta@tudelft.nl.

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