Feel Like Dessert?

You Are Tiramisu

Light and lovely, you pack a punch. You never overwhelm... but you always leave a lasting impression.

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Sustainable Food- Niche or Necessity

One great thing about this campus and the fact that it started out as a school of agriculture is that there are many groups around that still heavily think like an agi. Yes, we have our dairy plant and our sheep research and even a forestry major that no one really knows what it entails. But and this is a big But, we have many many groups of faculty and students that are dedicated to sustainability. We all know that our food system is based on agriculture, however we all aren't aware of how this agriculture works and how it is actually affecting the earth. Several of these groups have supported the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Speaker series. I am fortunate enough to get the emails about when these are coming up. And in light of the dinner that I recently attended I took the night off of work so I could see John Turenne speak about his jouryney with sustainability.

John started out as a cook, going to culinary school and landing a gig with Yale University as the foods service chair. John worked this job like anyone really would ordering from a large supplier and getting deliveries every morning. But one day he was called to the office of the President. One of the students mothers was there and really wanted to speak with him. This mother was no ordinary woman, she was Alice Waters. She is a chef who runs a resturant that depends on local and organic food. She was there to talk to John about going local, and being sustainable. Now after 25 years of conventional food service one might think that John was a lost cause, but no. He looked into it (partially because the president was sold on this idea). Now the school has a menu that varies by season (What a concept!) and gets it's supplies from a form of a middle man who gets produce from local and organic farms within the area.
Through this turning process John had a lot of battles, especially with the staff that would have to do much more work for prep of the meals, without any more employees to share in the new work. How does one convince a staff that the extra work is well worth it for the taste of the food and also for the good of the earth? Well he did that by showing them what sustainability is. Taking his crew to one of the local farms and talking to the farmer who used a pollycroping system. He explained what plants where where and how the farm worked. Later they moved onto the composting area to explain how the extra biomass would be transformed back into rich soil and used again. One woman brushed a tear from her eye. John being curious about why this woman was crying asked her what was wrong. Her response suprised him (thinking that she might be hot and that the smell was getting to her) She said to him "This is the way that it is supposed to be isn't it? The plants going back to dirt and the cycle continuing...it's almost spiritual."
With Yale being the jumping point of sustainability for John he has moved to having his own business where he helps schools change their program into sustainable ones.
With the average mileage of 1,500 traveled food today isn't sustainable at all. From 1940's with 131 million people, 6.1 million farms at 175 acres each to today's world with 261 million people, 2 million farms at 461 acres each it is easy to see why we are in trouble. However instead of turning things around we are only trying to fix them with biotechnology and poisons called herbicides and pesticides. 

Long term will sustainability infiltrate big business and factory farming? Will food defined as sustainable be a niche or a necessity? Only time will tell.