Flyers with pig-covered advertisements and posters promoting the controversial campaign entitled Meatless Mondays have covered Biola’s halls in recent weeks. Many are asking, “Why meatless?”

The movement

The philosophy club and Bon Appetit have partnered to make the national trend of eating meat-free a reality on Biola’s campus.

Senior Ray Mendiola, president of the philosophy club, stated that Meatless Mondays have been around for a while and are not just for colleges. According to meatlessmonday.com, the movement began in World War I to conserve important staples. Sid Lerner, known for his advertising campaigns, reintroduced this concept in 2003 to advocate the importance of public health. The movement has spread nationally and globally since.

Mendiola and his vice president introduced the meat-free option to make Biola students think about the consequences of what they put into their bodies. The club plans on putting on more events like “Love Life — No Matter Whose” to explain how Meatless Mondays are a healthy, ethical and biblically sound movement. These events will be centered around the importance of food justice, creation care and what it means to take responsibility for our actions as humans.

“God valued life above all things, even animal life … and it really wasn’t until the fall when God allowed people to eat meat and animals,” Mendiola stated.

Mendiola along with the rest of the philosophy club have been working to influence the campus in a tangible and meaningful way.

“A lot of the conceptions about philosophy is philosophers just think about stuff all day long. But I think that whole conception is wrong. I think philosophy should be practiced,” Mendiola said.

What will the Caf look like?

To reassure the meat-lovers, Mendiola explained that there will still be plenty of meat offered on Mondays. However, he encourages students to branch out and attempt eating meat-free.

“There’s a bunch of reasons behind it that make … the Meatless Mondays case more powerful than at a secular university where they’re just coming to it from an animal ethics perspective,” Mendiola stated.

John Rose, Biola’s executive chef for almost two years now, supports the meat-free alternatives on Mondays.

Rose explained that he will be introducing meat substitutes like tofu, soyrizo and TVP — a textured vegetable protein that resembles ground beef. He also stated that there will be both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes at each station.

“We’re going to offer meat, it’s just that we’re going to give you an option,” Rose said.

Meaty impressions

Emily Jackson, a sophomore music education major, feels that even though protein is essential for a healthy diet, Meatless Mondays have a good implication.

“I think [Meatless Mondays] is good in the sense that it has the potential to stir up a conversation about the environment and about … animal cruelty, but it seems like [Meatless Mondays] is just making people grumpy,” Jackson stated.

The solution, she feels, is to better educate the campus as to why this movement is happening and what the reasons behind implementing it are. A more thorough explanation on the advertisements, Jackson said, will inform the public and lessen the controversy.

Ben Crellin, a sophomore biblical studies major, feels there may be fault in the argument that Meatless Mondays is biblically centered.

“You can make a biblical case for the ethical treatment of animals,” Crellin said. “We are called to be the stewards of God’s creation as God tells us in Genesis — I don’t think we should be destroying any part of God’s creation in an unethical way.”

However, Crellin explained that the Israelites of the Old Testament along with Jesus and the disciples of the New Testament were far from vegetarians. He said that in Mark 7:19 Jesus declares all foods clean.

“There’s no biblical problem with eating meat in general, I understand that it can be a healthy option … [but] having a case for saying we need to eat less meat because the Bible wants us to take care of our bodies is not much of a biblically sound argument because you can take care of your body and eat meat,” Crellin stated.