Student news outlet The Stanford Daily has reported that more than a quarter of Stanford University’s student body population—approximately 1,700 students—have pledged to abstain from consuming meat as part of the Meatless Mondays campaign. Columnist David Kay credited the rise in plant-based choices to “the moral necessity of decreasing meat consumption and the ease at which most students can do so.” Furthermore, Kay reported that the incidence of students going vegan and vegetarian is not limited to Stanford alone and can be observed at universities across the country. Kay pointed out that millennials are driving public interest in ditching meat, with 12 percent of that demographic identifying as vegetarian (as opposed to only 1 and 4 percent of baby boomers and Gen Xers, respectively). Widespread Meatless Monday programs, social media platforms such as Instagram, and plant-based options on-campus such as Hampton Creek’s Just Mayo and Just Cookies are working in concert to serve student populations across the country who are increasingly looking for cruelty-free options.

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