food services/agriculture
Growing and transporting the food we eat requires many inputs we often don't think about. The application of pesticides and herbicides and the use of fossil fuels in farm equipment and food transport can have a number of environmental impacts.
Buying local foods reduces the amount of carbon dioxide and other emissions released during its delivery. Buying in bulk reduces the amount of packaging used to ship the food. Buying organic food will benefit your health, too: Organic fruits and vegetables may have 27% more vitamin C, 21.1% more iron, 29.3% more magnesium and 13.6% more phosphorus than conventional foods.
Idea starters
- Dishware:
- Create a reusable mug program, in which students and staff who use their own mugs get a discount for refills. Encourage dining services to use washable items when possible to eliminate the need for paper and Styrofoam.
- Food:
- Source food from local farmers, encourage food services to provide organic options, and encourage dining services to make it easier for students to take only what they will eat to cut down on waste. Consider composting waste.
- Grow your own:
- Consider starting an organic garden or farm plot to grow food that can be sent directly to food services and which does not pollute groundwater.
In practice
In Maine, Colby College’s sustainability programs extend to the school’s dining halls, which spent 20% of their budget on local products in 2005. One dining hall regularly has more than 20 organic items on the menu. In addition, Colby is committed to purchasing only sustainable seafood, has eliminated paper cups from the dining hall, and has implemented a just-in-time strategy so that food is cooked to order, thereby reducing pre-consumer waste by 80%.
Resources
- The Food Project
- http://www.thefoodproject.org
- Earth Pledge
- http://www.earthpledge.org/programs.html