Out of the Library and Onto the Farm

School’s out, internship season is upon us, and many liberal arts college students are spending the next few months on small farms as interns. In her New York Times article, “Many Summer Internships are Going Organic”, Kim Severson explores the remarkably high interest in summer farm work among them.

Students from Barnard, Kenyon, Macalester and many other colleges and universities across the country will put down their books, take a break from the internet, and pick up hoes and shears.  Severson believes for these young people “…farm life is a way to act on a growing enthusiasm for locally raised foods, increased concern over food safety and the environmental impact of agriculture.”

Fortunately for gung-ho students, since 2003, there has been a significant increase in the numbers of small sustainable farms in the U.S.  More farms equal more internships!  This year, according to Katherine Adam, the woman in charge of the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, funded by the USDA, 1,400 farms needed interns, practically three times the number from two years ago.

If you haven’t secured your summer plans, check out this site or contact farms of interest directly, to find out where you can get your hands dirty, and participate in the growing youth food movement.

 

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Banned Book?

By Slow Food USA Intern Melissa Rosenberg

Earlier this month, on this blog, we addressed the Agribusiness pressure directed at staff and administration at Virginia Tech, a land grant institution.  This week it came to the attention of the food community that another possible incident of corporate interference at a land grant institution had taken place; this time at Washington State University.

A university committee had selected Michael Pollan’s best-selling book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a critique of agribusiness, for the Common Reading Program designed for incoming freshmen.  But, after the committee purchased 4,000 copies, the original decision to include the book in the reading program was reversed.  In fact, the reading program was discontinued altogether, allegedly due to financial constraints.

An alternative explanation expressed by a WSU professor, quoted anonymously in The Chronicle of Higher Education, is that the book was pulled “because of the politics of the agricultural industry.”  He also said that the university president, Elson Floyd “decided that this was not a battle he wanted to wage.”

Upon learning of the curriculum changes at WSU, Food Democracy Now! sent out an email alert urging people to show their support for reinstatement of the reading program.  Within hours, President Floyd’s office was flooded with calls.

Thanks to a generous contribution from food safety lawyer, Bill Marler, a WSU alum, the university will distribute Pollan’s book to freshmen in the fall.  Marler will pay the full cost of the Common Reading Program and a visit by Michael Pollan to the university.

 

Fair Food Across Borders Goes on Tour

Chiapas Media Project (CMP)/Promedios, an award-winning U.S. and Mexican partnership, enables marginalized indigenous communities in Southern Mexico to create their own media. This past spring, CMP introduced an advocacy campaign entitled Fair Food Across Borders (FFAB). The goal of the campaign is to expose the human rights abuses suffered by migrant agricultural workers in Mexican agribusiness camps.

The highlight of the effort is the new CMP/Promedios video, Paying the Price: Migrant Workers in the Toxic Fields of Sinaloa. The video investigates the impoverished lives of migrant farmworkers from the town of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero. This past spring the FFAB campaign visited campuses across the country including Rutgers University, Ithaca College, New York University, University of New Mexico and University of Oklahoma, among others. In the fall of this year, the FFAB seeks campus sponsors to host presentations given by National Campaign Coordinator, Melody Gonzalez, which include a screening of Paying the Price and a discussion about the role of agribusiness and internal migration in Mexico, NAFTA, farmworker conditions in the U.S., and corporate consumer responsibility.

Invite FFAB to your campus this Fall!

 

Agribusiness vs. University Dining Services

By Slow Food USA Intern Melissa Rosenberg

In 2007, Virginia Tech Dining Services (VTDS) was ranked #1 for Best Campus Foods by the Princeton Review, getting high marks for student satisfaction. Recognized for its outstanding work by food industry peers, VTDS received the prestigious 2009 Ivy Award, bestowed each year upon exceptional food service operations.

Hired as the VTDS Sustainability Coordinator in October of 2008, Andy Sarjahani jumpstarted an effort to support sustainable food systems by monitoring every aspect of its food services. In a short time, Andy and his team have implemented a vast array of initiatives: removing trays to decrease food waste, composting, and working with distributors, non-profits and local farmers in a variety of Farm-to-College programs.

In addition, VTDS began growing its own herbs in a garden operated by the Horticulture Department and switched from Pennsylvania-raised factory farm eggs to Virginia-raised organic cage-free eggs. While somewhat more expensive, the food does more than taste delicious: VTDS’ $8 million budget enables the university to significantly impact the state food and agriculture economy as it feeds 34,000 hungry stomachs each day.

In March, statewide attention was drawn to the changes in VTDS buying practices after the Humane Society of the United States issued a press release celebrating the changes. Since then, staff members have come under pressure from such agribusiness groups as the Virginia Farm Bureau and the Virginia Poultry Federation, among several others. The lobbyists are asking the university to scale back or cease its work on promoting awareness and access to sustainable food.

As a land-grant institution, VT has close ties to the state’s agriculture industry, including the poultry business, which represents a third of Virginia’s commodity production. The university relies on the agriculture industry for a significant share of its funding. Lobbyists claim, the research VTDS cited to substantiate its sustainable initiatives, conflicts with research conducted at the university’s own College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Despite pressure from the VT President’s office and the VT Poultry Science Department to switch to caged eggs, VTDS continues to source cage-free local organic eggs.

To protect against incidents of agribusiness pressure, Andy strongly suggests that students take an active role. At VT, Andy co-founded the Sustainable Food Corps, a registered student organization that promotes economic development within the community and supports a resilient, sustainable, local food system. He has handed over the reins to a diverse group of students, from a variety of academic disciplines.

The Corps recently gathered students on campus to participate in a photo petition supporting sustainable food. It has also developed a food diversion and recovery mission, taking left over food from the dining halls to food pantries and food banks. In the coming days, the Corps will begin work on a student-run farm.

Andy urges students on other campuses to find a champion in a faculty or staff member to galvanize the formation of a student organization. As an alternative to starting from scratch, Slow Food on Campus provides a structure to assist students with organizing initiatives to support their local food systems.

Photos courtesy of Virginia Tech Sustainable Food Corps.

 

Bon Appétit Supports South Florida Farmworkers

Bon Appétit Management Company, a socially responsible food service provider operating on 400 university campuses and in corporate cafés throughout 29 states, has forged a new agreement that frames acceptable working conditions and enforces those conditions with a strict code of conduct. Appalled by what federal prosecutors describe as slavery, one of the largest food service companies in the country has promised to boycott Florida tomatoes unless conditions improve. Bon Appétit’s chief executive called on growers to “do the right thing and our five million pounds of business can go to them. Or they can let the tomatoes rot in the fields.” The new frontier in sustainable food is social justice and pressure from labor organizations is part of that new wave, but defending ‘green’ credentials is at the heart of it.

Under Bon Appétit’s agreement, which goes beyond the Coalition of Immokalee Workers agreements with other food industry companies, tomatoes will cease to be an undifferentiated commodity crop and growers who treat their workers more fairly will be rewarded with more business. Additionally, Bon Appétit is sending a strong message to growers that the company is prepared to cease buying tomatoes altogether if the growers don’t follow the code of conduct adopted by the company.

This agreement became a necessity after Bon Appétit, a division of the Compass Group, received a letter from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers which explained that their winter tomato supply was being provided by South Florida farmworkers who currently pick in modern day slavery conditions. The agreement includes: a ‘minimum fair wage’ that will reflect the working conditions of the South Florida fields, a requirement that growers implement time clocks, worker empowerment that will inform workers of their rights, a worker controlled health and safety committee, and third party monitoring of growers.

Bon Appétit’s agreement is the first step towards better worker rights and conditions for those providing campuses across the country with tomatoes, year round. Bon Appétit and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers hope that this mutual agreement will act as an example for other on-campus food service providers including Compass, Aramark and Sodexho.  Check out the Coalition’s Dine with Dignity campaign, which is working with college students across the country to apply pressure to this companies for more information about how.