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Plant Based Universities drop banner over Senate House balcony in support of AMM motion

Source: Agnes Sales

By Ike Idikakalu, First Year Politics and International Relations

Plant Based Universities, an international student led group calling for universities to transition to 100% plant-based catering, dropped a large banner from the second-floor balcony of Senate House in the early afternoon of the 3rd of February. 

The banner drop was done in support of their motion in the Annual Members Meeting (AMM) on the 4th of February calling for official endorsement from the Student Union for their campaign at Bristol University, as well as to get their support when lobbying Source Café for 100% plant-based catering. 

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A post shared by Plant Based Universities - University of Bristol (@plantbasedunisbristol)

Plant Based Universities campaigns to have universities switch to 100% plant-based catering to minimise the large climate impact university catering can have. They have successfully campaigned at Cambridge University, Lancaster University, and many more universities and student bodies in the UK and Europe. 

Their campaign at Bristol is focused on widening the options for affordable pre-packaged foods available at Source locations, encouraging students to make more sustainable choices. The motion submitted for the AMM aims to gather support for this initiative, and a successful vote would see this become Student Union policy for the next three years. 

In the run-up to the AMM, campaigners for Plant Based Universities could be seen leafletting, talking to students, mobilising students to vote for the motion, and placing posters across campus in support of the motion. This banner drop was the latest act in their campaign for more sustainable catering at the university. 

Agnes, a student who will be presenting the motion at the AMM, had this to say: 

'The AMM is an incredible opportunity to get involved in student democracy and to make real change around campus. Science is telling us that we need a plant-based transition to prevent climate catastrophe, and as centres of innovation and research, universities need to act. Thirteen unis throughout Europe have already started the transition, and Bristol is lagging.

Source Cafés have a small selection of plant-based sandwiches and other pre-packaged foods, with most of them being in the highest price bands - making them unaffordable for students. If we want to encourage students to make sustainable choices, this needs to change.'

The motion will sit alongside other proposed sustainability measures, including introduction of recyclable soft plastics, as well as the renewal of the Fossil Free Careers scheme, which lobbies to refuse relationships between fossil fuel industries and the SU or university careers schemes.

The AMM will be hosted in the Powell Lecture Theatre at 5pm on February 4th.

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