Students for Sustainable Food protest Beef Day in Olympia
By Julia Berkman
Cuisine is tied to many aspects of the human experience — the meals we share with others, the way we cook, how we get our ingredients. Unfortunately, with the rise in factory farms and global temperatures, humanity doesn’t have the luxury of ease of mind when it comes to their daily consumption. Environmental and animal activists alike have been promoting a meat or animal product-free diet as the best way to cut down on your own greenhouse emissions, as well as to help you become a more ethical consumer.
A huge component in Western’s own journey to becoming a more ethical food producer, the Students for Sustainable Food, have been working on many projects all year in order to help students and faculty alike take a look at their own habits of consumption. Last week, SSF President Emma Bigongiari and six other members took a trip down to Olympia to protest Beef Day, an annual event put on by the State Building.
Beef Day is a day where cattle and dairy farmers meet on the lawn of the capitol building to grill steak and drink milk with legislators. While it may seem to be fairly exploitative and perhaps a conflict of interest between government and privatized companies, the event has been run for years. The official purpose of the event is to educate the public about the nutritional benefits of beef and milk.
Ethically, Beef Day is questionable.
“The beef is donated by Tyson, a giant corporation with an extremely troubling track record of worker abuse, animal harm and environmental pollution,” Bigongiari said. “In addition, animal agriculture as a whole is one of the leading drivers of climate change. According to the UN, animal agriculture creates more greenhouse gas emissions globally than the entire transportation sector combined.”
The protests of this event went beyond just ethical treatment of animals. The false perception that vegans are overly concerned about the animals involved in the meat industry is an idea that, even if true, is constantly used to discredit their beliefs. Veganism is also a lifestyle choice for those who don’t wish to support exploitation of workers or contribute to greenhouse emissions.
“Speaking for myself, I do not believe that animal farming is sustainable because it is built off of animal and worker exploitation, it is a driver of climate change, and it is harmful to human health,” Bigongiari, a vegan, said. “That said, we had a mix of folks who attended this day, including some vegans and some people who ate animals; it was important to us that we all work together to speak up against corporate food.”
Their day began on the steps of the Olympia Capitol. Beef Day protesters were met with mixed reviews from locals. Some people were interested in the message SSF was supporting, but many were angry at the protest of a tradition.
“I think the highlight was when a cattle rancher came up to us seeming very angry, but after talking to us and coming to understand that our main issue was with Tyson, he ended up saying ‘I actually agree with you!’” Bigongiari said.
So often, student protesters in particular are given flack for their actions. Seen as undereducated and overexcited, most student protesters face opposition from even those who support the causes being protested for. For instance, a #NoDAPL protest that stopped I-5 traffic a few months ago was criticized on both sides of the table. Yet, the civil rights activists who stopped traffic are now glorified in our country’s history.
“If you are annoyed by student activists, it is likely because you are privileged and do not feel the impacts of oppression which make activism and organizing so necessary,” Bigongiari said. “The reason we have so many of the rights we have today is in large part because of activists of the past, so those who complain about protests should consider that even their right to complain is because of past generations of protesters.”
This sentiment has been echoed by some of the most influential activists in recent protests, such as Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March.
Let’s say you don’t want to stop traffic, but you’re still looking for ways to help. SSF’s overarching goal right now is to petition Western to sever ties with the current food supplier Aramark. They also are still working on the Real Food Challenge and educating other about food justice. As a consumer, you have a lot more power in this country than you would think. Where you shop and what you buy is one of the best ways to wield your power in this capitalistic society.
All photos courtesy of Emma Bigongiari.