Sustainable Food Systems

Introduction:

At its core, food is medicine. Food is deeply integrated into our everyday lives, and many of us take it for granted everyday. However, food has great implications for the environment, and thus, human health, as we are not mutually exclusive.

Farming practices have many effects on the air, water, soil, and human health, both negatively and positively. In the industrialized food system, it is most decidedly negative. Massive amounts of toxic waste from industrialized farming practices make its way into the environment. Additionally, concentrated livestock operations cause nitrogen runoff into waterways and produce methane emissions, which is a powerful greenhouse gas (Horrigan, 2002). Tons of emissions are produced from transporting products across states, countries, and intercontinental.

In the corporate-controlled food system, there is a practice of manufacturing a false sense of scarcity in order to maintain high-profit margins, with people of color bearing disproportionate negative impacts (Allen, 2008). Localizing food systems is a form of food justice; it not only reduces direct negative environmental impacts but also gives sovereignty back to local communities, building a culture of mutual aid, as well as minimizing dependence on foods created by industrialized agricultural practices.

Core Issue:

• A lack of access to local, affordable, equitable, and healthy farm fresh food.

• Increasing access is important for aiding in a holistic healthy lifestyle, especially for those living in food deserts.

• As food systems are globalized, access to nutritious food becomes increasingly difficult to obtain.

• Shortening these supply chains would help combat food insecurity in the most vulnerable communities and provide healthy food to those who need it most.

Context:

We believe that ethical efficiency and accessibility to locally produced and nutritious food should be increased. To do this, we broke down issues contributing to the lack of farm fresh food security on GVSU's campus.

Local Scale

• Local food systems are designed to create niche markets in smaller areas with specialized producers with the benefit of reducing food miles, broaden accessibility, engage the community, support small businesses, etc. (Mount, 2012).

• Localizing food systems is the first step at transforming modern agriculture (Mount, 2012).

• Localization is an important way to increase food security for a community.

• Centralizing the food production for GVSU would increase nutritional food access for students as well as decrease food waste.

Community Communication

• Each group member connected with a local community member in order to gain further information on the topic, which helped us develop a focus of our project.

• We spoke with farm managers and business owners about their opinions and ideas of how to solve food supply issues on campus.

• Communicating with stakeholders allowed us to more accurately assess the situation and gave us inspiration on how to solve it.

• Most importantly, it allowed us to check certain ideas off the list for what was and was not feasible.

Stakeholder Quotes

"The government needs to make it mandatory that you have to start growing food on your land. Even if you have just a 10 x 10 plot of grass, it's better for everyone that it's not pretty, green, bug free, clover free and lush. That takes so much on the world. We need to incentivize people to eat healthy and buy from their own town" -Local Organic Farmer

"The SAP wants to increase food accessibility to students on campus first, because there’s not a lot of options for students on campus. It’s basically meal plans, Replenish, the food bank, or riding the bus to Meijer. So, increasing access to students is the priority first and foremost." -GVSU SAP Farm Manager

"Community, local, and urban farms are on the rise. I believe that they will become a dominant way of how we engage and feed local populations as crises such as climate change impact the global supply chain." -New City Neighbor's Farm Representative

"One of the best ways to have students buy more local food is to educate them." - GVSU Farm Club President

Identify Solution

• Utilizing available ornamental space for food is a possible way to increase local food production.

• There are many spaces on campus that already are growing ornamental plant species that could be better utilized for supporting students food needs.

• Offering this food free of charge would allow at risk students to spend less on food as well as have access to fresh healthy food they would not obtain otherwise.

Application of Solutions

Prototype 1:

We propose making a request to the biology department for a small portion of the Kindschi Greenhouse. The SAP having a small space to start plants for the growing season, or having some fruiting plants in the winter would be a good place to start to increase efficiency and availability for students. Additionally, larger plants that require more attention can be grown here in pots suitably sized for their root systems.

Logistics:

Because the Kindschi greenhouse is predominantly overseen by the biology department, we propose that the students from ENS classes and those working with the SAP request access to the greenhouse to care for plant starts and permanent plants. The baby plants would be started in early spring by students in applicable classes. Summer SAP interns could be responsible for moving the starts to the SAP. In the colder months, students could tend to any long term plant residents.

Prototype 2:

Utilizing roof space for food garden. The roof of Mackinac Hall on GVSU's Allendale campus This space would be best suited for leafy greens such as spinach. The shallow root systems and low, wide spread would be ideal for the shallow soil of green roofs. Spinach seeds should be planted during spring and fall 12 inches apart in fertile, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.5 to 7.0.

Logistics:

To effectively carry this out, we propose that caring for the beds become a part of existing GVSU classes. ENS 201, 300, & 392 all have a volunteer component, either required or for extra credit. This could become a required component for these courses. Dependent on the time of year, students would be responsible for planting, weeding, monitoring, harvesting and distributing the crop. The produce could be distributed to Replenish, GVSU's food pantry, and we propose that any excess could be either sold at the GVSU farm stand. We also suggest setting up a stand in POD stores for excess produce for students passing through to take for free. This stand could also be used for nearly dated out food in the POD store for students to take, reducing waste.

Roadblocks and Limitations

One might think, "GVSU has so much green space, why can't we have gardens in spaces more accessible to students?" We asked this question too in our design thinking process. We found it comes down to University politics and players such as facilities, who prioritize aesthetics and public image over students having affordable, nutritious food at their access.

This is an important example of greenwashing and performative social justice, which have become hot topics in academic, political, and social settings. For our prototype, we pursued a small scale and more feasible solution, but given our current constraints, we still believe successful on-campus gardens are possible. Many universities have successful gardens with easy access to students. We encourage future students to not be discouraged and keep pushing for food justice on campus.

References:

Allen, P. (2008). Mining for justice in the food system: perceptions, practices, and possibilities. Agriculture and

Human Values, 25(2), 157–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9120-6

Horrigan, L., Lawrence, R. S., & Walker, P. (2002). How sustainable agriculture can address the environmental

and human health harms of industrial agriculture. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(5), 445–456.

https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.02110445

Mount, P. (2012). Growing local food: scale and local food systems governance. Agriculture & Human Values,

29(1), 107–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-011-9331-0