Organic food movement not strictly granola

And you thought students couldn't get more diet-conscious. Joining the ranks of Yale's food watchers, a newly formed student group called Food from the Earth is making an effort to bring organic foods into dining halls. But the movement is not to be written off as a fad for health freaks. In fact, if there is any main message to the campaign, it is that the issue of organic foods concerns everyone.

"Most people tend to think of this as just for granola people," Ariane Kirtley, TD '01, a leader of Food from the Earth, said. Popular myth has branded organics as strange mutations of normal food that taste like cardboard. However, the truth is quite a bit more appetizing. "Organic" refers to cultivation methods of farm products, not to a type of cuisine. An organically grown apple will look, smell, and taste like one from a non-organic farm. There is, of course, one crucial difference. As Ian Cheney, BK '02, another leader from Food from the Earth, put it, "You won't have to wipe off any pesticides from the skin of an organic apple."

DAVID GEST/YH Hilary Kaplan, BR '00, a member of Food from the Earth, led an independent campaign to bring organic food to the Slifka Center.

Organic foods grow on farms without pesticides, herbicides, artificial fertilizers, or preservatives, and are cultivated in chemical-free soil. By adhering to techniques like crop rotation and natural fertilization, and by refraining from genetic modification, these farms reduce the dangers posed by large agro-businesses. Organic food advocates insist that eliminating toxic substances which are known to cause cancers and birth defects will benefit the consumers' health, protect farm laborers from deadly diseases, keep the soil nourished, and help maintain a pure drinking supply.

Overall demand for this option has grown in recent years, and Food from the Earth is an attempt to bring it to Yale. Last November, the organization worked with Timothy Dwight's dining hall managers to organize a full spread of organic dishes for TD's '60s and '70s retro night. It also formed a committee with Aramark, the company that manages Yale Dining Services (YDS), and arranged regular meetings with YDS. Food from the Earth is pursing an educational campaign, distributing flyers, adding information to the YDS webpage, and table-tenting to increase student awareness. Also in the works is a pilot program of organic theme dinners in Timothy Dwight and Calhoun, set for late March.

But activists admit the process has moved more slowly than they had hoped. "Our original goal was for students to be able to walk into a dining hall and have a fully organic meal, from hot entrées to bread to fruits," Kirtley said. "That's not going to happen by the end of the year."

The delays come as YDS confronts the drawbacks of organic food. Because they are produced on smaller, family-run farms, and because their methods of cultivation are more expensive, organic foods tend to cost more. Without chemicals, organic products are left more vulnerable to seasonal vagaries of weather and higher levels of contamination. TD dining hall manager Peter Wimmer saw this irregular quality when he organized the TD retro night. "It was hard to do natural in November," he said. "Some of the food that came in, we just couldn't use. Like the peppers—they were disgusting!" Mariann Peterson, director of marketing at YDS, remains concerned about the short shelf life of organic foods. She explained, "Something that's been sprayed will travel much further and lasts much longer—that's an issue."

Members of Food from the Earth recognize these problems but they see ways around them. The dining hall uses food quickly, they say, so shelf life should not be a problem. Kirtley also addressed the issue of price. "In most staples, like rice, the price difference is very small," she explained. She also emphasized the rights of students as consumers."We pay quite a bit of money to the dining halls every year. It seems fair that we should be able to choose what kind of food is being served."

Ultimately, success depends on garnering general student support. Wimmer is enthusiastic about the pilot program and the movement's future. Peterson said, "We're in the business of trying to please everyone. It's hard, but...hopefully [we'll] work out something practical."

Perhaps Food from the Earth and YDS can learn from Slifka Center's Kosher Kitchen, which recently began to include organic foods in its daily menu. Hilary Kaplan, BR '00, a member of Food from the Earth who helped bring about the change, spoke of the organic food movement from a Jewish perspective. "A lot of Jewish thinkers have been talking about what it means to be kosher," she said. "They are starting to ask: is it kosher to eat food that exposes workers to harmful pesticides?" She also commented on the importance of creating local movements from larger national issues. "From an environmental perspective, we need to ask how we can bring large issues onto campus. This is one way."

Back to News...