For many young people, college is a time when they are making their first independent decisions about what they will eat three times a day and, on a broader scale, what issues are important to them. The decisions that they are making now will shape the rest of their lives and, in fact, the course of the future of our country as they become our leaders. We talked to Ryan Huling, manager of college campaigns and outreach for peta2, about the impact that college students across the country are having on the animal rights movement.

What have college students done to make campuses more cruelty-free?
The number of vegetarian college students has risen by more than 50 percent since 2005, and the number of vegans has more than doubled, so it's no surprise that the demand for meatless options on campuses is high. And as a result of students' growing objections to dissection, more colleges are creating formal and informal policies that allow students to opt out of dissection and be provided with humane alternatives.

peta2 says that young people are leading the charge for animal rights. How so?
Young people, and college students in particular, have been an integral part of every social-justice movement in recent history, and animal rights is no exception. peta2's Liberation exhibit that we present on college campuses juxtaposes the abuse that humans have inflicted on each other throughout history (such as child labor, slavery, and the denial of basic rights) with the abuse that we currently inflict on animals. Students are highly motivated to correct this injustice as well.  

The peta2 Street Team (our youth activist network) has more than 70,000 active members who are signing petitions, making phone calls to companies that abuse animals, running student groups, and educating their friends about animal rights every day. Many who have visited a youth-focused concert, such as Warped Tour, lately will attest to the fact that every show attendee either is vegetarian or has friends who are. The idea of boycotting animal products has become mainstream in youth culture, and today’s young people will influence future generations.

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For more exciting news on the college-outreach campaign, see peta2's just-released list of 2011's Top 10 Most Vegan-Friendly Colleges.

aitkencollege / CC

Pennsylvania's Lincoln University recently caused quite an uproar with the news that it requires obese students to enroll in—and complete—a fitness course before they can graduate. PETA applauds the school's effort to promote healthier lifestyles, but—let's face it—mandating fitness classes will have little or no impact if students continue to chow down on cheeseburgers and milkshakes. So we're urging Lincoln University officials to go a step further by making the school what PETA believes is this nation's first all-vegan campus.

The evidence is clear: Vegans are likely to be thinner and in better overall health than meat-eaters. The American Dietetic Association, the nation's largest group of nutrition professionals, found that vegetarians have lower rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer than do meat-eaters. By swapping chicken nuggets for tempeh tacos, university officials will help students realize the health benefits of a plant-based diet. Plus, countless animals will be spared horrendous suffering on factory farms and cruel deaths in slaughterhouses.

Written by Karin Bennett

One Australian farmer could've used our swine flu mask recently, but not for the reason you might think. After smelling what he thought was a gas leak, he called emergency services, and two fire trucks rushed over to his farm. When the fire captain came in, he took one look at the man's pig, and it was immediately apparent that the foul air was a gas problem of a different sort: They were all getting a whiff of the pig's wind.

executedtoday / CC

If a single sow's fetid flatulence is enough to warrant the attention of 15 firefighters, then imagine the gaseous trail left by the 63 million pigs on factory farms. Turns out that going vegan helps reduce more than one type of gaseous emission.

Written by Logan Scherer

As I'm a firm believer that a gal can never have too many purses, I think this week's "Win It" Wednesday is quite possibly the most drool-inducing one yet. Check it out:

Bird Handbags hooked us up with its fabulous "L'il Lady" bag, which retails for $214 and is made from recycled Army tents (not a stitch of leather on it). I have a feeling that some lucky winner will soon proclaim this designer bag to be a new fave.

Here's how you can win: Imagine that you're calling in a dedication to a radio station—include a brief message and name the song (and its artist) that best sums up your feelings about your favorite bag. If I could enter (sniff—I can't), here's how my entry would go:

Have a go—and please have some fun with this challenge. Submit your most heartfelt or funniest dedication. The person who wows us wins the prize.

The contest ends on December 16, 2009, and we'll choose one winner on December 18, 2009. Be sure to read our privacy policy and terms and conditions, as you're agreeing to both by commenting. Good luck!

Written by Karin Bennett

*Obviously, my dedication was influenced by this week's prize, as I don't even own a green bag—yet.

Tongues are already wagging over Joanna Krupa's latest PETA ad, but not everyone is showering this angel for animals with love and support. More specifically, the Catholic League had some not-so-nice things to say. Always on her toes, the Dancing With the Stars alum was swift to come to the defense of her newest ad by releasing the following statement about why she chose to pose for us:

Written by Shawna Flavell

It's been years since my high school biology class, but I still remember the smell of the rotting pig corpses that we mutilated over the course of a nightmarish three-day lab. Piled in the corner of the room in a black garbage bag, the carcasses emanated a rancid smell that only got worse each day, and after each lab period, we all ate lunch in the same room—the lab doubled as our cafeteria.

Today, though, it's the sweet smell of victory that I'm waking up to. Nine months ago, a compassionate student at Oakton Community College contacted PETA about a professor who was having students in an anatomy and physiology class cut open live rats and mudpuppies to observe how their organs worked. We immediately contacted school officials to share information on the intelligent, complex animals who were being tormented and killed for these experiments and presented officials with cruelty-free and effective educational alternatives. This week, Oakton Community College let us know that it has stopped using live animals in ALL of its classes!

shiachat / CC

We're urging all schools (hear that, ASU?) to follow Oakton's enlightened path and replace their cruel classroom animal experiments with modern, more effective non-animal learning methods. Biology is the study of life—it just doesn't make any sense to kill animals to teach it. Urge schools in your area to get smart and go cruelty-free.

Written by Logan Scherer

sugarslam / CC

The following is a guest blog from peta2's Marta.

If there's one thing I like, it's a guy who knows how to work a microwave. That might sound weird, but hear me out. For the past many months, my friend Starza and I have been working hard to bring you PETA's Vegan College Cookbook: 275 Easy, Cheap, and Delicious Recipes to Keep You Vegan at School. Here's the really exciting part: The most complicated cooking contraption you'll need for these recipes is a microwave!

What does this all have to do with Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson? Well, as it turns out, the lovely Mr. Pattinson loves microwaves too. According to an interview with Pattinson in the April issue of GQ, "He explains that the place he's staying at in L.A. has a microwave, and that he's never had a microwave before, and that he spends a lot of time looking for new things you can microwave." Including a carrot! Talk about a match made in heaven (meaning Pattinson and the cookbook, not him and me—although, now that I think about it …).

Anyway, I can't imagine a more perfect gift for him right now than PETA's Vegan College Cookbook, which is exactly why we sent one his way today. After all, the cookbook is perfect for any busy person—whether you're a college student or a movie star. Wouldn't it be awesome if he realized how easy it is to be vegetarian and gave up the flesh?

Now, the cookbook doesn't come out until May, but here's a sneak peek at a recipe you can sink your teeth into right now!

Campus Streaker Sausage Dip

Great for when you're on the run.

14-oz. vegan sausage

2 10-oz. containers vegan cream cheese, room temperature

1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained

• Crumble the sausage as best you can and stir it into the cream cheese and tomatoes until evenly blended. Heat in the microwave for 3 minutes or until hot.
• Serve with tortilla chips.

Makes 8 servings

Written by Marta Holmberg

P.S. If you're as ridiculously obsessed with corny infomercials as I am, you'll love our cookbook infomercial!

I can’t think why, but apparently, the good folks at New Hampshire Community Technical College-Manchester have grown unhappy with their institution’s name. I guess it’s possible that they thought it was a bit on the boring side. Or perhaps just a teensy bit unwieldy?

Either way, as of last week, their long wait for an exciting new moniker is over, since the kindhearted souls in PETA’s Vegan Campaigns Department had a little brainstorming session and decided to offer them this striking suggestion:

It has a real ring to it, doesn’t it? Something about the alliteration, maybe. If they like our idea, not only will NHCTC students be able to hold their heads high with the knowledge that their school finally has a genuinely interesting name, but they’ll be sending a strong message that their progressive institution opposes cruelty to animals in all its forms. Plus, in case they need an incentive beyond the good they’ll be doing for the chickens abused for KFC’s restaurants, I can assure them that name changes like that tend to get a whole lot of publicity …

You can read our letter to the school here. We haven’t heard back from them yet for some reason, but I’ll let you know when we do.

Those overeducated academics over at peta2 have just released their annual list of the top 40 vegetarian-friendly colleges in the United States, so if you want to show a little love for your alma mater or your hometown school, you can cast your vote here. The school with the best vegetarian options will be announced in the second week of November, so there’s still a bit of time to vote. The contest has already been getting some good press in college newspapers across the country, including this piece in Yale’s newsletter, and this little vignette from ASU.

My school a) didn’t have a cafeteria to speak of, and b) wasn’t in the U.S., so I went ahead and voted for Berkeley—because Berkeley is beautiful, and they have vegan chicken nuggets. You can vote for your favorite here.