The Daily Campus

Issue date: 3/3/09 Section: Commentary

It seems like the world keeps speeding up, and everyone's getting busier and busier. With more technology and large corporations influencing the way we shop, eat, and live our lives, it's easy to forget about that local farm in town.

Last week, The Daily Campus ran a feature on "Real Slow Food," a group on campus that was "created to raise awareness about sustainable agriculture and locally grown food." It's a combination of the "Real Food Challenge," which wants 20 percent of the food on campus to be local, and "Slow Food," which wants to know where food comes from.

Every effort to eat more local foods and support sustainable agriculture is important, and no steps are too small. The various groups on campus with this goal should be commended. Not only is there something comforting about knowing where your food comes from and that it took all-natural steps to get on your plate, but also, it is better for you, the environment and society in general, which can benefit from more sustainable communities.

With such rapid globalization and corporations taking on poorer countries for cheap labor and cheaper exports, several small, family-owned farms were hit hard or went out of business. The connection between local farms and consumers is a lot smaller than one from an outsourced farm, and problems associated with mass production like heavy pesticides and additives are less likely. Also, local farming reduces the traffic from transporting foods from far away. All of these benefits from sustainable agriculture are benefits to the environment.

"Real Slow Food" isn't the only initiative on campus with these goals. In the Local Routes program, UConn dining halls receive locally grown food products, with Whitney Dining Hall serving the largest share. Also, the Eco Garden Club "through growing a variety of native and heirloom crops, [aims] to foster connections to not only the earth around us; but to elevate human consciousness in order to design a better future." They've created their own garden to take the sustainable agriculture initiative on themselves.

These environmental groups deserve to be upset over what has happened with outsourcing agriculture, and their actions are a great step toward a greener, healthier future.

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