During the reading break this year, I set out on my very first trip to the United States of America, Seattle, during which I experience the ‘American’ portion size of food, indeed I am amaze with the huge consumption and availability of carbonated soft drinks as part of the north American diet, and the enormous portion size when you order food. The entrenched fast food culture within the North American Society is distinct. This experience set me to reflect upon Marion Nestle’s (2011) speech, her condemnation of the pervasive marketing of processed and unhealthy foods, and her disdain towards the fast food culture, and her emphasis of education and the looming obesity problems. Furthermore, it also enabled me to contrast American’s ‘over consumption’ to Asia where malnutrition is still a vital issue for many Asian countries.

Still I disapprove of how food is being marketed and sold in North America, I believe that there is no need for what Americans might call the ‘super-size’ portion size. What it portrays is just the sharp polarity of poverty and wealth between the developed economies and developing world. A probable solution is education, the American dietetic solution should emphasize on nation-wide education in choosing and consuming right, yet the most important issue is to regulate marketing of processed food products and fast food. Over-sized portion size should not be made available to consumers, in addition proper recommendation of how many serving of this food product should be eaten per day should also be made mandatory on all food products.

Check out this video below:

MArion Nestle, Nobel Conference on What is Good Food

References

Connell, D. J., Smithers, J., & Joseph, A. (2008). Farmers’ markets and the “good food” value chain: a preliminary study. Local Environment, 13(3), 169-185. doi:10.1080/13549830701669096

Marion, N. (2010). Food politics, personal responsibility vs social responsbility [Web]. Retrieved from https://gustavus.edu/events/nobelconference/2010/archive.php

Godfray H. J., Charles Beddington R., John Crute R., Ian Lawrence Haddad, David Lawrence, James F. Muir, Jules Pretty, Sherman Robinson, Sandy M. Thomas, and Camilla Toulmin (2010) Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People. Published online 28 January 2010 [DOI:10.1126/science.1185383]

Sustainability is now the hot topic in the academic world. But really there is more than just recycling, reusing and reducing waste, it is all about the social ethos you live in, your ability to ‘walk the talk’. This entails more than just making grabbing that bottle of coke bottle you just had and recycling it, one needs to understand why, how sustainability could be entrenched within your values and beliefs. Our sources and choices of food impacts our surrounding, the consequence of our food waste might just be destroying the ecology of our . Let us fathom upon our food system, how do we embrace a more sustainable food system.

On a personal level, I believe that sustainable food systems are born out of a culture of ‘respect’, respect for each other (us), respect for the land and the respect for our future generations (our children and descendants). A food system that yields good food has to be one that its consumers recognize that we are embedded as part of this food system, and that our actions and choices impacts and affects subsequent generations environmentally, culturally, socially. Man has overtime disconnected himself from the very earth that gave it food and energy; we need to recognize that life will only sustain humanity only if earth continues to bestow its abundance of produces. Godfray et al. (2010) on solving the problem of feeding 9 billion people conclude, “The goals is no longer simply to maximize productivity, but to optimize across a far more complex landscape of production, environmental, and social justice outcomes”. We as citizens of the world thus needs to be assertive on demanding and sourcing our food from more sustainable origins, such as fair trade labeling and supporting local farm coops and local food markets.

I wanted to share some awesome sustainable marketing campaigns that connects consumers to sustainable food sources. One of which is the UBC Farm, but interestingly I wanted to discuss UC Santa Cruz outreach activities that connects daily consumers, students, faculty members to its local food system.

UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) serves as an ideal reference institution for the University of British Columbia (UBC) in its quest for a sustainable, local food system. Both institutes share a similar context of having an organic farm located on campus facilitating the incorporation local organic food into their campus food systems.  UCSC  has established itself as “a national model for a growing movement called ‘farm-to-college’” (The Cultivar, 2006).  The farm-to-college movement “help farmers get more of the food dollar, benefit local economies, and give students access to locally produced, fresh food” (The Cultivar, 2006).  All five on campus student dining facilities at UCSC are now offering fresh and local produce every day of the week as a result of the relationship formed between local farms and the educational institute.

Critical to the success of UCSC’s food movement was the support and demand from students for local, organic food, sustainable food system.  The Food Systems Working Group (FSWG) comprised of students, faculty, staff, and community representatives, with the common goal for increasing food security and sustainability, came together to determine how this could best be accomplished. The education of students was one of two primary strategies the FSWG implemented to ensure their food movement’s ongoing success.  These outreach activities introduced at UCSC included (The Cultivar, 2006):

• local organic College Night dinners,
• facilitating the relationships between dining services staff and local farmers,
• organizing regional farm tours for students and organic taste tests at the college,
• bringing in student leaders from other campuses and guest speakers to advocate sustainable food system resource exchange and food sovereignty.

The FSWG emphasizes ongoing outreach and student education to maintain participation and support from both the students and the dining services for sustainable food.  The success of farm-to-college food movement at UCSC has served as a springboard for a statewide movement.   In October 2004 students launched UC Sustainable Foods Campaign of the California Student Sustainability Coalition to focus on developing all components of sustainable campus food systems.  However, the progress at UCSC is not finished, as the FSWG continues to strive for increased local, fresh, and sustainable food options available on campus.

Through our investigation into developing local food systems across North America, the most common barrier to success and the most challenging task was consumer education. Within the university context, this means promoting student and faculty awareness of the issues surrounding local food. The University of California, Berkley has had many successes in its journey to a more sustainable and locally reliant food shed through campus education campaigns.

UC Berkeley participates in three major arenas of local food education.  The first is a student group that visits farmers’ markets on weekends to buy locally sourced food and then sells that food on campus during the week at cost to other students. This brings the market to campus and creates exposure for local food and an opportunity to engage a wider range of students in the experience of eating locally. Berkeley also screens films that promote and educate on the local food movement. One such film that was viewed on campus recently called “FRESH” tells the story of the farmers, thinkers, and business people who have been driving the local food movement and why. Finally, media outreach is a very important part of sparking the interest in students and staff that may create a curiosity in local food. The different organizations at UC Berkley have been very visible in various media outlets in the area and have been successful in promoting their initiatives.

References

The Cultivar (2006). UC Santa Cruz makes the farm-to-college connection.  The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. 24, 1-19.