Majoring in Compassion

More college students going vegan to combat animal cruelty, while enjoying pizza, pie and more.

When youth animal rights group peta2.org, a division of PETA, released its annual list of North America’s most vegan-friendly colleges there was no shortage of schools cited or vegan dishes and desserts which students—vegan and non-vegan—enthusiastically recommend. With over 80 schools nominated this year across the U.S. and Canada, it is clear that veganism is crossing over from a fringe trend to a mainstream lifestyle. Why has there been an explosion of vegan dining choices in many of the top universities and colleges across the country and beyond? To match the demand, says Ryan Huling, assistant manager of college campaigns for peta2.

The biggest boost in vegans on campus may lie in the freshman population which is often comprised of young people who are figuring out their effect on the world around them, who are shaping and cementing their ethical and moral ideals, and who may have wanted to go vegan in the past but whose efforts were discouraged.  

“Once they turn eighteen and get to college, they are much freer to decide what kinds of foods they want to eat, their parents don’t watch over them as much, and maybe in high school they wanted to go vegan and vegetarian, but their parents were an obstacle,” Huling explains. “Now they make their own dining choices that are in line with their ethics.”

Educational institutions don’t want to be considered backward or unwilling to work with students; they want to be known as progressive, he adds.

“There is a new wave of young people coming in, and they expect vegan menu options to be available and they keep the demand going,” Huling tells demodirt.com.

College kids are also more privy to discovering the dark horrors behind the food that they and their peers eat, Huling adds.

“Students are spending so much time on Facebook and social networking, and between socializing with their friends, they see the undercover videos of animals having their throats slit while fully conscious, of pigs being castrated without any painkillers, or of chickens being scalded alive before they become McNuggets,” he explains.

When dining halls offer cruelty-free options like vegan Philly cheese steaks or vegan chili cheese hot dogs, students realize that they can make ethical choices and continue to eat foods they enjoy.

As young adults, college students explore how acutely their choices support specific industries, including animal agriculture, Huling says.

“College is the time that young people get to make some of their first independent decisions, and they learn more about industries they are supporting,” he explains. “They don’t want to support the cruelty and vast inefficiency inherent in raising animals for food. Thanks to cruelty-free options, they no longer have to support these industries.”  

The more they learn about animal industry, the more demand for foods that are consistent with their ethics grows.   

“Colleges have to adapt. Over the last few years, there has been a tremendous boost in the number of vegan options in colleges, such as vegan soft serve ice cream and vegan barbequed ribs, and this is on an all-you-can-eat basis,” Huling notes. “At American University, they offer vegan chocolate coconut cream pie, in addition to three different kinds of vegan cheesecake.”

It is not just vegans or vegetarians that enjoy the animal-free offerings. Omnivorous students also dive into the vegan cream pie, increasing demand for the dishes.

Had schools been concerned about any potential increased cost of adding vegan options?

Once schools researched the true cost of many of the ingredients—often basic and easily obtained foods like beans and tofu—combined with the strong demand for the items, their financial worries were banished and profits rolled in.

Beyond college campuses, traditionally meat-heavy businesses have revamped their menus to meet vegan demand. Popular Long Island eatery Three Brothers Pizza Café has enjoyed enormous success with its vegan menu, which is offered alongside its meat- and dairy-laden one.   

Three Brothers staff says that the majority of its customers are indeed vegan and the direction of the restaurant is changing to accommodate its clients.

"Ninety percent of our dine-in customers are vegan, and about fifty percent of our total customers are vegan, including dine-in and delivery," says Jay Astafa, creator of the Three Brothers Pizza Café vegan menu and the restaurant's head vegan chef.

While most of the tables on any given night are taken by vegans, often if there is a mixed group of vegans and omnivores, "a vegan brought them there," he notes.

The young chef, 18, whose culinary skills have been featured in the New York Times and CBS News, says his decision to go vegan was based ethical reasons.

"It was the way the animals were treated on factory farms," Astafa, who recently won PETA's Compassionate Teen Award, explains. "The vegan menu was a good way to promote veganism and educate people about vegan food."

While the vegan menu started simply, initially offering fare like the popular Backyard BBQ and Veggie Lovers Dream pizzas, vegan mozzarella sticks, and vegan sausage and pepper and seitan parmesan heroes, the options have expanded to more sophisticated offerings like seitan piccata, seitan marsala and fettuccine alfredo.

This fall, Three Brothers is launching a vegan brunch on Sundays, as well as expanding its dinner menu to include tofu sea cakes—the equivalent of the classic crab cake—a crostini platter, and a new salad selection featuring Dr. Cow's cashew cheese.

Astafa, who is also a student when not at the restaurant, says that he has noticed that veganism is becoming more mainstream. "At college, I was surprised at how many people are familiar with veganism," he tells demodirt.com.

On the West Coast, Cruzer, another pizzeria with locations in Los Angeles and Glendale, has changed its menu at its LA location to 100 percent vegan, all due to client demand, Huling says.   

“They have seen an increase in business as a result of their decision,” he maintains. “It was economic-wise a business decision, but it is also a healthier, more humane dining option.”

“Young people are driving these trends,” he contends. “Traditional restaurants with same menu for twenty years are revamping their menus as a response to young people.”

While New York and Los Angeles have traditionally led the way towards more animal- and earth-friendly dining, schools in the Midwest and the South have also seen the demand for vegan foods, and have responded favorably.   

In fact, Huling says, there have not been any significant differences between who is more likely to go vegan today. There haven’t been differences according to race, sex, conservative versus liberal schools, or regionally.   

“It has been all across the spectrum,” he says, noting that one of the schools nominated as vegan-friendly is Howard University, a historically black university. 

“Everyone is horrified by factory farms and slaughterhouse and global warming, and everyone is looking for healthier ways to combat obesity which affects everyone,” Huling explains. “This is happening all across the country. Some nominees, like Iowa State University, now serve vegan chicken nuggets, and the University of Texas serves a vegan brownie with peanut butter mousse—that campus has two vegetarian organizations.”  

Schools in rural and urban areas alike are embracing vegan options, even in the most surprising regions.

“It is all a matter of information,” Huling maintains. “Any place that young people have access to the Internet, there is going to be a demand for vegan meals. Mississippi and Alabama, historically seen as unfriendly towards vegans, are now leading the charge.”  

Many schools have done a good job of laying down the foundation for future attendees. In his role at peta2, Huling also corresponds with thirteen and fourteen year-old kids saying that they were raised vegan or vegetarian, and they want to continue their commitment to animals.   

“Their parents raised them to realize that all animals feel pain and suffer in exactly the same way the cats and dogs in their home do,” he explains.   

These kids, he adds, will go on to college, where they will make choices consistent with their ethics, which will keep high-quality vegan fare available to all.   

Vegan dining has certainly come a long way. Huling notes that previous generations of vegans and vegetarians “remember ordering veggie burger powder through the mail.”   

While it may be too early to tell the long-term habits of today’s committed campus vegans, Huling contends that, “unlike many fad diets, like Atkins, they don’t think in short-term when they go vegan or vegetarian. They boycott industries because of institutional practices that they disagree with, and when they graduate, they put these ideals into practice.”

For example, a passionate vegan college student may someday become an animal rights attorney, he adds.  

“These are the people that will change the world,” Huling concludes.