Author: Food and Energy in Israel Tour Group (Page 4 of 5)

After a discussion of soil tilth and terroir led by Professor Halpin, students participated in a ravioli workshop with Professor Luca Trazzi.

Welcome, Fall! The first official week of autumn is nearly to an end and we in the Food Studies Department are watching celebrations of the harvest take place all over campus. Here are some food related stories to keep us conscious of this magical time of year…

1. The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened yesterday. The new addition to the Smithsonian family is home to a variety of artifacts, 37,000 of them to be exact. Many of these items celebrate the unique culinary culture of African American heritage, a tradition that the museum operators have striven to encapsulate in the visitor’s entire experience, from exhibit to food court.
2. Our very own Dickinsonian, Vaughn Gooding has made his debut in the world of food. Check out his homemade guacamole here.
3. It’s fall and that means PSL season. So why is pumpkin spice so popular and what are the origins of this crowd pleasing flavor combo?
4. Did you get out to the farm for the Harvest Festival this past Friday? Dickinson’s celebration of fall is one of many in a long string of cultural traditions.

Guest Author: Cindy Baur ’16

Grease soaked vegetables.  Refried beans.  French fries. Mac and cheese.  These were the vegetarian options offered in the cafeteria that sparked Pro Veg, a group of students who wanted to improve and expand vegetarian options on campus.  The group formed as sort of a sub-movement of the Food Advisory Council, a collection of faculty, Dining Services staff, and students that meets about once a month to discuss Dining Services related topics.

Originally I was inspired to found Pro Veg by a trip to the Hazon Jewish Food Festival in Philadelphia.  At the festival I sat in on talks about Kosher butchering and I found myself considering a more mindful approach to eating meat.  Many people at the festival were approaching topics from an activist standpoint and I left feeling encouraged.  Dickinson calls itself a sustainable institution and in many ways it is a leader in sustainable initiatives, especially when it comes to food.  However, as I reflected upon the food choices available at Dickinson I realized that we could be doing so much more.  I felt that Meatless Mondays could be a great option for Dining Services to pursue to reduce Dickinson’s carbon footprint and to encourage others to take a break from meat one day a week.  I knew certain groups of students on campus wouldn’t be thrilled, such as athletes, but I felt that with the right approach, students would realize that meatless options can be just as protein-rich as actual meat.

The first step was to find other students interested in promoting vegetarianism on campus.  I started by emailing people I knew would be interested: student farmers, Baird Sustainability Fellows, and members of Asbell Cooking Club (a club that cooks vegetarian meals once a week).  I ended up with an email list of 13 people.

At our first meeting, about five people actually showed up.  During our discussion I quickly realized that pursuing Meatless Mondays at Dickinson was going to be a much more difficult task than I had imagined.  Students in the group pointed out that Meatless Mondays wouldn’t be well received by the entire student body, especially because it presents vegetarianism as the only moral choice.  In other words, if you eat a vegetarian diet, you are a better person.  As a group we came to the conclusion that it was not our place to force people into certain food choices.

We decided that starting by making vegetarian options better and more abundant would be a much better approach to starting the process of increasing vegetarianism on campus.  Our strategy was to make vegetarian options so available and irresistible that people wouldn’t even realize that they would be skipping out on eating meat.  We decided to call ourselves Pro Veg.  I timidly brought our ideas to Dining Services.  How could I, a senior living off-campus and without a meal plan, have any sway in what is served in the caf?  During my first meeting with Errol Huffman, the director of Dining Services, I quickly realized that Dining Services cares a lot about what students want.  As Errol told me, they’re in the business of pleasing customers and if their customers want more vegetarian options, they would try to provide that.

After a few more meetings with Pro Veg members and Dining Services representatives we decided that the best way to capture how Dickinson students feel about current vegetarian options would be through a survey.  Errol sent me the four-week menu rotation with every single item served in the caf.  Pro Veg members and I designed a survey around the menu, asking students to list their favorite and least favorite options and to use requests for open space to give constructive criticism and to make suggestions for improvement.

We sent out the survey and received 264 responses.  We found that most students surveyed rarely feel like there are enough vegetarian and vegan options in the caf.  Students said that they did not think there were enough protein options for a vegetarian and they often still felt hungry after eating a meal.  Survey respondents easily pointed out their dissatisfactions with the caf but did not use the open-ended spaces of the survey to give constructive feedback.  If you’d like to see all of the responses, click here and select responses at the top of the page.

After the survey closed and Pro Veg had a chance to sift through the results, I sat down with Errol and head chef Richie Rice.  Both Errol and Richie were receptive of the survey.  In fact, Errol had already given Richie the assignment of adding 100 new vegetarian menu items to the menu rotation for the 2016-2017 academic year.

I think the survey taught me that there is no way to please everyone, that there is no perfect solution to any problem and that sometimes people do not have the same interpretation of a problem. The whole Pro Veg process also taught me students have more power on campus than they may realize.  Without much effort I was able to come up with an idea, find other students who supported my idea, and meet with Dickinson staff to talk about those ideas and I think that’s pretty damn cool.

On Monday, 9/20, the students in the Introduction to Food Studies Seminar spent their class time in Adams county talking with Ben Wenk of Three Springs Fruit Farm. Discussion topics covered everything from Integrated Pest Management to the growing popularity of hard cider. Take a peak at some of the photos from our field trip:

Another week, another round of food news. Check out the links below for exciting updates about developments in the world of food! 🌱🌱🌱

If you follow as many chefs and food businesses on social media as I do, it will not have escaped your notice that this weekend was Feast Portland. In its fifth year, Feast Portland aims is “partnering with Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon, focusing on raising awareness for their efforts to expand school breakfast participation in Oregon schools.” Read more about the chefs, tastemakers, and distillers involved in this event including the very near and dear Hugh Acheson.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! This past Thursday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, a holiday of the lunar calendar. Traditionally, the day is celebrated by indulging in a mooncake, round pastries made of red bean or lotus paste filled with a salted egg yolk.

Sugar vs. Fat…is it a question of the lesser of two evils?

Hunger effects one in every six Americans. Insufficient energy and nutrients takes its toll on individuals in a variety of ways. Read about the social consequences of youths left hungry here.

Did you miss the public lecture delivered by Dr. Raj Patel on September 8th? Were you there and would like to hear Dr. Patel’s informative and inspiring lecture once more? Follow the link below to a complete video recording of the Clarke Forum’s inaugural lecture of the Fall 2016 Semester: The World Food Made.

ht://clarke.dickinson.edu/public-videos/tp

Hello, Dickinson Foodies! This past week was brimming  with amazing opportunities for the food lover, food activist, and food eater on campus. As we gear up for the third week of the semester, keep an eye out for some reflective content coming your way on our special guests Hugh Acheson and Raj Patel. Until then, enjoy this highlights from the food industry:

-Will the “sniff test” become a thing of the past? Possibly, at least where milk is concerned. Read about the new technology that tells you when your milk is over the edge.

-Was our first president the first composter? Hardly! But he was a heck of a good one. Read about the history of compost and how to start your own compost bin/pile.

-Dickinson celebrated its 233rd Charter Day Anniversary this past week. In celebration, take a look at what revolutionaries were feasting on within a decade of Dickinson’s founding.

-What effect is food deflation having on national grocery chains? Read more here.

If you have any suggestions for our next addition of “This Week in Food,” comment below or send a link to foodstudies@dickinson.edu.

To celebrate the beginning of another semester and to kick off the Food Studies Program’s first year, the Clarke Forum will be bringing together some of the biggest names in food—policy, business, culture, and otherwise.

Beginning September 8^th, the Dickinson Community will welcome the academic, author, and activist Raj Patel to share his commentary on the state of our global food system. Patel applies a broad lens to the issues of food availability, malnutrition, and what the world is–or is failing to do–to guarantee a brighter food future. What is to blame for the striking inequalities in food access across the world? Why are so many struggling to consume enough while too much consumption plagues others? These questions are among many that Raj Patel explores in his several publications and will address at his public lecture.

The scope of our food discussion will then narrow as we explore food as a component of regional culture with Chef Hugh Acheson.   Drawing on his experiences with food growing up in Canada and later as a celebrity chef in Athens, Georgia, Chef Acheson will provide insight into the major issues facing the American food system. From racial inequality to political hypocrisy, Chef Acheson will discuss modern food culture and suggest potential solutions to the problems it faces.

The Food Studies Certificate faculty in conjunction with the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues invites you to participate in the events surrounding the visits of these two food intellectuals. Please review the calendar found on this site as well as the official Clarke Forum website for opportunities to join the conversation.