Camosun Environmental Technology student Rhonda Hemstreet cares about animals. She cares about animals so much that she co-founded the Camosun Animal Ethics Club to get a dialogue flowing about a more animal-friendly diet and, as a result, an ecologically friendly diet.
“There’s a lot of sustainability implications with meat eating and the meat and the dairy trade,” says Hemstreet.
Hemstreet says that the meat and dairy industries contribute greatly to greenhouse gases. For example, she says that a meat eater on a bicycle can have a bigger ecological footprint than a vegan in a car.
“A lot of people don’t know that,” she says. “They want to be green with their choices, but they don’t know how huge it is.”
Hemstreet, who has been a vegetarian for four years, says that a lot of people just don’t take responsibility for their choices.
“It’s just, ‘Oh, this is available to me; I’m going to eat it.’ And we don’t really think about the consequences of that,” she says.
Hemstreet—who adds that the club will also look at Bill C-246, the Modernizing Animal Protections Act—says that vegetarianism is not just about ethics for her.
“I’ve felt way better both ethically and physically; my health, as well,” she says. “It was a great choice.”
Hemstreet says that things are slow right now for the Animal Ethics Club, but once fall arrives, regular meetings should get underway, as well as more initiatives around campus.
“We’re going to really try to get meatless Mondays in the cafeteria and just raise awareness through that on the greenhouse gasses and the sustainability effects of being meat free,” she says.
Hemstreet says that it was frustrating that the club got going just as the winter term ended, but she looks forward to things getting busier in the fall and hopes that the club will grow to both Camosun campuses.
“We would love, once we’re established, to get something going out at Interurban as well,” she says. “That would be huge, because that’s where the culinary department is.”
Hemstreet says that although sustainability is important in her field of environmental technology, for her, it really comes down to how the animals are treated.
“Animals are just totally marginalized, neglected, and abused, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a cow, a cat, a dog, a rabbit; they all can feel, and they are living, breathing, bleeding beings,” says Hemstreet. “They need to be respected a lot more than they are.”