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Buildings & Grounds is written by Scott Carlson (left) and Lawrence Biemiller (right). Scott Carlson writes about architecture, facilties, energy, and sustainability, among other topics. Lawrence Biemiller writes about architecture and facilities and contributes to Notes from Academe. What's happening on your campus? Let us know.
Vandana Shiva: 'Why Shouldn't Edible Schoolyards Be on Every Campus?'
Raleigh, N.C. — Vandana Shiva, the physicist and environmental activist, spoke here at the national conference of the Association for the Advancement for Sustainability in Higher Education this morning. Her topic was food — what she calls “the currency of life” — and how an industrial food system has poisoned the soil and pushed people off their land.
The speech hit on a number of agricultural issues that have been widely discussed recently and made popular by writers like Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver. There is no doubt that food issues will be increasingly important in coming years, as agriculture is stressed by climate change, dwindling petroleum supplies, and environmental degradation in the form of loss of biodiversity and erosion. (Read essays in The Chronicle‘s Buildings & Grounds about this topic here and here.)
Ms. Shiva said that “the issue of food has increasingly become an issue of peace” because stresses on traditional agriculture and the industrialization of food have led people to wage war against nature, against each other, and even against their own bodies, in the form of cancers and obesity. The industrialization of food has led to empty countrysides both here in the U.S. and in India, Ms. Shiva’s native country.
“An empty countryside has never been a good human design,” she said, because it means that people are cramming into megacities and are falling away from the skills needed to raise food in traditional ways.
Colleges have a big role to play in fixing agriculture because they are partly to blame for its problems: The so-called Green Revolution, which created fertilizer-dependent industrial agriculture, is a result of research done at colleges and universities. “The solutions will have to come out of the place where it started,” she said.
She pointed out that Alice Waters, the Berkeley chef and food activist, had gotten a lot of attention for her Edible Schoolyard project, in which middle-school students are learning about agriculture and cuisine by growing gardens. Colleges should start setting up their own edible grounds, she said.
“Why shouldn’t edible schoolyards be on every campus?” she asked. —Scott Carlson
Scott Carlson | Tuesday November 11, 2008 | Permalink | Contact usComments
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I like this idea. Students should have the option to tend a garden. Let’s get rid of some parking lots!
— mary Nov 11, 04:49 PM #
There was a middle school teacher in Montpelier, VT in the early 90s that lead a student organization called “The Lettuce Eat Garden Group.” Students tended a vegetable garden in the back of the school yard. It was small, but a great program.
— Nathan Nov 12, 11:20 AM #
While conventional methods employed during the green revolution may have their fault’s, we must be careful in trying to promote sustainability while condemning ‘industrial agriculture.’ ‘Industrial Agriculture’ likely would include modern science based production methods including biotechnology, which has enabled food producers world wide to increase income and yields. The result has been the reduction in the use of chemicals, conserving land, and more efficient use of fuel and water- further reducing pollution and environmental impact, and promoting biodiversity.
These technologies likely will provide the tools necesary to combat climate change as well.
— agEconomist Nov 13, 10:57 AM #
I agree that we must be willing to look critically at our practices (as a society, as well as in agriculture and business). Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is not the answer, however.
It makes loads more sense to promote research and alternative methods through sound ag policy, and market choices than through legislation and creating fear for our current food supply.
I do agree strongly, though, that many food and health issues would be helped by getting consumers closer to their food and how it is produced.
— Sara DowntoEarth Nov 15, 07:31 AM #