Green envoys plant the seed

THE Vegetarian Society of Singapore (VSS) wants to spread its creed among youth and has roped in a dozen Raffles Institution (RI) students for the job.

The boys, all in Secondary 3 in RI's Integrated Programme (IP), will spread awareness about health and environmental problems caused by eating and producing meat. They will do so by giving talks and mounting exhibitions in schools.

Their mission: To get fellow students to eat more vegetables and cut down on their meat intake by year's end. With help from VSS, they will also try to get canteen stall owners on board by suggesting ways of including more greens in their menus.

The IP students are doing this project under Research Education, a subject in their curriculum.

Just a month in, the 12 ambassadors of vegetarianism have yet to decide on the schools where they will promote their cause, but they scored a victory two weeks ago when they persuaded RI's Indian food stall owner to sell vegetarian burgers.

To fan publicity for these new-style burgers, they ran a quiz on environment-related issues over two days. Students who answered at least two questions could buy the $1.50 burger for 50 cents.

The team's head of publicity Amos Mah, 14, said 300 burgers were sold on each of the two days of the campaign, but this has fallen to under 100.

Undaunted, he said: 'We learnt that it is not easy to change eating habits and mindsets. But we believe that, over time, by presenting our schoolmates with the facts on the effects of eating meat, they will be encouraged to make changes to their lifestyles.'

The team has been busy: It has produced posters, now plastered all over RI, on the environmental and health benefits of a more plant- based diet.

VSS education officer Loh Yeow Nguan said the society decided it was best that students be the ones to persuade their peers to eat more greens, since VSS has not had much success after years of giving talks and holding exhibitions in schools.

He added: 'Getting the students directly involved helps them to understand better the damage that eating meat can do to their health and the environment.'

This has certainly been true for team member Cheong Kah Wah, 16, who said: 'I did not know eating meat could cause so many health and environmental problems. I've decided to eat less meat and am cutting down on fast food.

'I hope that, by doing this, I can encourage my friends to change their eating habits too.'

In recent years, efforts have been made in several countries to change the eating habits of youth. Britain, for example, has banned junk food from its school canteens.

Here, schools under the 'Model Tuckshop' Programme do not sell drinks with more than 8g of sugar per 100ml as well as deep-fried food and preserved meat more than once a week.

VSS president George Jacobs said these efforts are heartening, but more needs to be done. 'We can restrict the number of times fried food is sold in schools, but it won't make much of a difference if students do not believe in the importance of healthy eating. They will still buy fried food from other places.'