This week marked Wesleyan’s first annual Food Politics Week, intended to raise student awareness about the problems in the production and distribution of food.
“Opening the refrigerator door and taking something out is a political act,” said Adam Martinez ’05 and Rachael Lindsay ’05, coordinators of the week. “What you buy at the supermarket makes a statement about what kind of world you want to live in.”
The week’s events included a lecture on biodiversity in agriculture, a bread-making workshop led by Moxie Trissel ’07; making food for the hungry run by Food Not Bombs; work at the Long Lane Farm; an edible plants walk with Biology Professor Michael Singer; dumpster diving run by Brendan O’Connell ’08; a short movie on sustainable farming in Cuba; and a veg-out at Earth House, with a talk on agricultural politics.
One of the more popular of these events was dumpster diving, which was held on Tuesday night. It involved searching through garage bags in any given dumpster for valuables, which can range from food to some surprisingly funny things.
At one dumpster dive students found a working space heater, office supplies, a wig, a mask, photos, and even unopened cans of Ensure, according to O’Connell. At his talk before the dive, O’Connell showed off his bike, which he found in a dumpster. He also named good places to dive, such as businesses, apartments, thrift stores, and the dumpster outside Weshop.
“We’re socialized against regarding trash as valuable,” O’Connell said.
Tuesday night’s finds included fresh bagels, donuts, vegetables, and even a fully-intact pumpkin.
“People who dumpster dive often do so not only for fun,” said Jean Pockrus ’08, who attended the diving workshop. “They act from a philosophical/ economical standpoint. Wasting food and resources on the scale that the U.S. does is pathological.”
The week began with Vandana Shiva’s talk on biodiversity in agricultural production, which was sponsored by the Shasha Seminar for Concerns.
“Shiva emphasized making farming more efficient, with more diversity, and smaller farms,” said Caroline Rober ’08. “In addition, she spoke of the importance of working the land for people in general.”
There are several well-organized student groups on campus that address the issues of food politics directly: Food Not Bombs, FoRC, Long Lane Farm, the Environmental Organizers’ Network and Compassionate Living and Animal Awareness at Wesleyan, according to Owen O’Connor ’07.
FoRC is a new group created by Lee Grodin ’05 and Bay Love ’05, which according to its mission statement, “recovers food from Wesleyan dining services, which would otherwise be discarded, and transports it for donation to local community organizations in need.”
The organization transports the remaining food that Pi Café, Vespers and the Campus Center would throw out and delivers it to a local shelter. According to members of FoRC, the waste of food on campus reflects the larger issue of poor distribution of resources in the world.
Food Not Bombs runs a Sunday morning meal program that makes hot food available to the hungry. Each Sunday morning at 11 p.m. in Well-Being House, the group takes all its donated food and makes several vegetarian dishes.
Long Lane Farm is a student-initiated and student-run organic agriculture project. Currently students have planted winter rye to improve the condition of the soil. The farm is also working on getting credit for students who work on the farm organizing a program house for the farm, and developing a six-week internship program for a high school students in the area.
“Food is our most basic need and it comes from our environment,” Lindsay said. “People no longer think about how food is produced. They walk into a grocery store and do not consider where the food is coming from. There are direct ramifications for our actions which need to be addressed. To deal effectively with these issues, people must be educated.”
Organizers said that Food Politics Week was a success.
“I was surprised how well things came together,” O’Connor said. “Everyone [we] asked helped out and people liked what they did.”
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