We are what we eat, we should know what we eat

 On Thursday, Feb. 5 the Tufts Friedman Justice League, in collaboration with the Fletcher Food Policy Club and a few other supporting organizations, hosted a screening of the documentary “Food Chains.”The showing was followed by a panel discussion with four experts in food justice, including one of the film’s producers, Smriti Keshari. The exposé followed a group of Florida farmworkers who are fighting for the global supermarket industry to recognize the Fair Food program, which aims to improve working and living standards for farmworkers by pushing corporations to acknowledge the social responsibility to human rights that they have as a result of their economic power. Those who attended the screening learned about the human cost of agriculture in the United States, and were given the opportunity to participate in the global fight against this injustice by joining organizations such as the Food Chain Worker’s Alliance (FCWA), which has attracted a group of undergraduate students at Tufts who are passionate about playing a part in addressing this weak link in our modern food chain.

Issues such as those touched featured in the documentary seem to have been garnering more attention in recent years -- Tufts Environmental Studies program even features an entire new track dedicated to “Food Systems, Nutrition, and the Environment”-- and rightfully so. Because every person needs to eat and obtain food in one way or another, concerns about food security, the environmental and social consequences of mass agriculture and the economy of our food system are ones that apply to everyone. And while joining organizations such as the FCWA or dedicating the entirety of one’s undergraduate studies to learning about and fighting against the issues that plague the United States’ food system is, understandably, not on everyone’s agenda, it is important that we do not push the great challenge of these problems onto the small nucleus of people who are passionate about the cause and assume that they will -- or can -- make the necessary changes on everyone’s behalf.

As students at a university, we have a responsibility to learn not only material studied in the classroom, but about the world that we are becoming full-fledged members of, and as easy as it is to not think twice about what we consume every day without much thought or consideration, it is precisely for this reason that we need to start being more conscious about what we eat. A crucial part of learning involves asking questions and, in many cases, being critical. Yes, Tufts Dining Services offers various food options that are labeled “locally grown,” but what does this claim actually imply? Are these local farms that practice organic agriculture, and do they pay their workers enough for them to maintain a reasonable standard of living? And what about the rest of the options from unlabeled sources? Where do General Gau’s chickens actually come from, and how are they -- and the workers that tend to them -- treated? As students we not only have the right but the responsibility to demand more transparency in the social and environmental consciousness of our food, especially when every student who lives in a campus dorm is required to purchase a meal plan.

And with the right and responsibility to know comes the right and responsibility to act in whichever ways we can. Most cafes on campus, including The Rez and the Tower Cafe, offer discounts to all who bring their own mugs instead of using disposable paper or Styrofoam cups, yet recycling bins (and, even worse, garbage cans) in Tisch Library are always overflowing with these wasteful products.When Carmichael Dining Hall offers Sundaes during dinner they also offer paper cups and plastic utensils, possibly to allow students to take their ice cream to go, but these definitely not utilized in this way the majority of the time. Reusable bowls and spoons are available only ten feet away, and it’s our responsibility as dining hall patrons to consider the food we are about to eat and its consequences that will live on long after dinner time.

We vote three times a day with what we put on our plates, and it’s all of our responsibility to recognize this power and use it for the greater good.