Vegetarians are on your side

Lauren Benning, in her Sept. 30 letter, "Panda Express overly criticized," adulterates a reasonable claim for more healthy and sustainable dining options for those with special dietary needs by denouncing vegetarians.

She points out that most campus eateries have numerous vegetarian options but few options for those who seek other diets. She continues to blame campus vegetarians for this paucity, as if Duke Dining has a finite store of tolerance which the vegetarians are using up. What Benning fails to understand is that these are not pieces of a limited pie, and the existence of vegetarian options does not preclude the possibility of others.

She then cites a statistic that there are far more people in the United States with gluten sensitivity than there are vegetarians. Even if this were pertinent to campus demographics, vegetarians lobbied for more dining options in the past and vegetarian food is not eaten exclusively by vegetarians. She misguidedly decides that vegetarians are her opponents when in fact, we, along with Duke Dining, are her allies. Bon Appetit is committed to serving local and organic foods and is sincerely open to suggestions.

Benning jealously cites the Durham Co-op as a bastion of vegetarianism, when in fact, through PlanV, both vegetarians and non-vegetarians can shop there. We are puzzled as to why she maligns the Co-op when it would provide the types of food in accordance with her dietary preferences. PlanV is currently in the process of bringing the Co-op to campus, and we invite her to join us in our efforts.

We are on the same side. Vegetarians and vegans are often concerned about health as well and are equally frustrated by the lack of healthy dining options.

We invite Benning to join PlanV in our continuous effort to encourage Duke Dining to meet the dietary needs of all students, including those with the goals of local and organic food options and humanely raised meat.

Aaron Sandel

Trinity '10