Food Politics/Biojustice Week, which began Sunday, April 22 with a concert at Earth House and will conclude this Sunday with workshops and performances by the Rising Tide Roadshow in the Science Center, explores a variety of current issues in conservation, global warming, sustainable agriculture, and contentious consumerism.
“[The term] ‘biojustice’ has been used for decades,” said Brian Brotman ’07, an organizer of the week’s events. “For me, what I mean when I say biojustice is basically a rebellion against corporate control over life on earth. What we’re seeing more and more is that corporations have been given the legal right to patent genes and also to patent seeds of plants. They declare ownership of the plants and declare that space theirs. They also have been patenting human genes and animals and I think this is a particularly dangerous trend.”
Events ranged from the more political lecture on the dangers of biotechnology by Brian Tokar, director of the Biotechnology Project at the Institute for Social Ecology, to a more practical exercise of bioethics and sustainability with Earth House’s culinary endeavor, “25 Ways to Make Parsnips,” scheduled for this Saturday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“I guess what we want to accomplish with this week is to raise awareness of a huge environmental issue that we deal with everyday—the food on our plates,” said Brooke Richart ’08. “We want to make people more aware of issues with food distribution and social justice, as well as the importance of local foods, as well as becoming more self-reliant in feeding themselves.”
On a rainy Wednesday afternoon, Assistant Professor of Biology Michael Singer, who specializes in ecology, led a small group of students on an edible plant walk through campus. Dandelions, dock, Jewelweed, and Shepherd’s Purse these are not the traditional flavoring agents ordinarily found in steaming casseroles and fresh garden salads, but Singer’s walk showcased the delicious hidden treasures that one may find in one’s backyard (or quad).
“You don’t want to be tasting things indiscriminately, you really need to use some caution,” Singer said, starting off with a few preliminary words of wisdom.
He also prefaced the walk by remarking that many natively European plants—today considered weeds or nuisances—had once been of great use to early American settlers.
Singer said that dandelions are least bitter when picked promptly after flowering and can be used in stir-fry, as a substitute for coffee, or as a flavoring agent in wine. They are rich in vitamins A, B, and C.
On Home Ave., the group discovered wild onion, mint, and garlic mustard. Singer said that the wild onion looks a bit like lilies, which are mostly poisonous. One student confessed that she had eaten day lilies before in mass quantities.
“Day lilies are an exception since you’re kind of a testament to that,” Singer responded.
“It’s always good to use the smell test,” Singer warned after teaching the group how to identify poisonous lilies from wild onion. The wild onion smelled similar to a scallion, but milder.
One of the more familiar plants examined was the Multiflora rose, known by tea connoisseurs as the source of the rosehips used in many tea blends. The hips (the fruit of the plant) may be used for salads, jellies, and sandwiches in addition to having many medicinal benefits. The hips themselves are high in vitamins A, B, C, and K and the minerals calcium and iron. A “rosehip syrup,” made from hips and sugar, helps to produce red blood cells and can be prescribed for anemia. However, if the tea made from rosehips is not strained properly, an “itchy bottom condition” may result.
Another plant that could be used for medicinal purposes was the Jewelweed, known for its orange blossoms and exploding seedpods. Its shoots must be picked and boiled in two changes of water before being eaten, but are also useful as a topical salve to relieve itching caused by mosquito bites, athelete’s foot, warts, and ringworm.
Some of the students already seemed familiar with the plants on the walk, but learned some new information as well.
“I taught children about plants this summer,” said Emma Kravet ’09. “I still learned a lot of cool things—I didn’t know that many lilies were poisonous, so that was eye-opening.”
“I like to cook, so I like to try integrating new wild plants into my cooking,” said Katherine Pittore ’08. “We have tons of onions in our lawn.”
In the end, caution should be taken that plants are not harvested where weed killers are used, which Professor Singer mentioned is a concern on Wesleyan grounds. There are also many plants that need to be boiled before use in order to remove their toxins.
“Clover is something you want to boil. It has some chemical that may cause indigestion,” Professor Singer pointed out.
One of the central events during Biojustice Week was a lecture by Anna Lappé, best-selling author and co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, who discussed food politics and social change.
“[Lappé] has been influential in the struggle for biojustice and food politics in the post-colonial world,” said Brotman, adding that interested students should attend the Global Farmer’s Speaking Tour on Friday in Shanklin 107 at 4:15 p.m.
Biojustice week will end with the Rising Tide Roadshow on Sunday which, as the events calendar reads, “explores Global Warming and its connections to other issues of social significane, such as food sovereignty, gender, the prison industrial complex, and Biotechnology through a series of workshops, performances, a folk-punk musical and a tour of their bio-fuel bus.”
Next weekend, Brotman hopes to gather as many interested Wesleyan students as possible with local activists to protest a biotech industry conference.