LINCOLN, Neb. – University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Hannah Evans learned a valuable lesson recently when she attempted to implement a Meatless Mondays informational campaign for her classmates.

She was among students who asked UNL’s student government for funds to promote the Meatless Monday message on campus, and the reaction from her classmates was swift and fierce.

“People heard the title of the bill and thought ‘This girls wants to get rid of meat I the dining has, and she hates Nebraska,’” Evans told Omaha.com.

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“Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, working in collaboration with the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,” according to the campaigns website.

“Our goal is to reduce meat consumption by 15 percent for our personal health and the health of the planet.”

Evans and her supporters wanted $250 to launch the campaign at UNL to educate students about how meat production contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, but students in the college’s agricultural programs – including animal science majors and members of the Collegiate Farm Bureau – quickly shot down the proposal, according to Omaha.com and Fox News.

More than 100 students also threatened to protest the idea, Fox reports.

Spencer Hartman, an agricultural economics major, told Omaha.com many students come from farming families, and didn’t want to spend their student fees to advocate against their livelihood.

“For many of us, our livelihood depends on crop or protein production,” he said. “To launch a campaign directly in conflict with that, and to use their own money to combat their own cause, we didn’t feel that was a just thing to do.”

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Other students, like Ashtyn Shrewsbury, an animal science major who raises cattle, also pointed out to the student senate that the environmental impact of the beef industry pales in comparison to transportation emissions.

“Is it worthwhile to spend funds informing us about this versus a car-pool initiative or taking the bus?” she questioned.

Evans stressed that she didn’t seek to eliminate meat from the school cafeteria, on Mondays or any other day, but rather wanted simply to erect a placard to inform students about the impact of meat production on the environment and human health.

“The meat industry contributes to greenhouse gas emission in each stage of meat production,” the placard said. “If every American ate no meat or cheese one day per week, it would be like taking 7.6 million cars off the road.”

The placard also contained information about how “meat is great for Nebraska.”

“According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Nebraska is #2 in the country for beef production,” it said. “Cattle ranching and farming is not only a job, but also a way of life for countless Nebraskans.”

Nebraska is the nation’s top commercial red meat producing state, with the industry contributing $12 billion to its economy, according to Nebraska Department of Agriculture figures cited by Fox.

That’s likely why the Meatless Monday campaign has repeatedly flopped on college campuses across the Cornhusker State. Two years ago the food contractor for University of Nebraska Medical Center attempted to remove meet from its dining halls but was met massive pushback and canceled the idea after two weeks, Omaha.com reports.

Creighton University also tried to remove meat on Mondays, but reversed course the following semester after students complained.

University of Nebraska vice president Ronnie Green told Omaha.com the reason the Meatless Monday campaign has been such a miserable flop in Nebraska is a no-brainer.

“It goes against basically the entire industry – the meat production industry, the animal agriculture industry that is of course so important in Nebraska,” he said, adding that “Meatless Monday is based on information that’s not correct or accurate.”

“Science says the most efficient way, with the least environmental input cost, to produce high quality protein in beef is the management systems and operational makeup of the industry we have today,” Green said.