Introduction

Do you ever think about what happens to our food after we throw it away? I didn’t either. I assumed it just went to the dump and sat there. It’s food, so how bad could it be for the environment? As it turns out, food waste in landfills releases a greenhouse gas called methane, that traps heat in our atmosphere far more efficiently than carbon dioxide (EESI, n.d.). This makes reducing it an important part in fighting climate change. One cleaner way to deal with this food waste is a biodigester, and Dickinson College has one right on its farm.

What is a Biodigester?

A biodigester, also called an Anaerobic Digester, is a system that converts food and other organic waste into energy.  Food, crop, and animal waste is crushed, mixed with water, and  pumped into a sealed container devoid of oxygen. In this tank, microbes break the waste down and it produces three outputs, Biogas, Digestate, and pulp.

Biogas is used to produce immediate energy like electricity and heat. It can also be upgraded to a renewable natural gas (RNG) called biomethane that can fuel cars and be used in the natural gas network (EESI, n.d).

Digestate is the liquid  produced from the anaerobic digestion, and can be used as fertilizer.

Pulp is the pressed fibers that can be used as bedding for livestock and as soil amendments (Steiman, M. 2026).

Figure 1

Note. Figure 1 Illustrates a biodigester system, and its inputs and outputs (EESI, n.d).

What does it look like at Dickinson?

The biodigester at the Dickinson farm sits near the dairy cows, and what makes it unique is their partnership, not only with the dairy farm next door but also with local businesses. The farm takes around 41 bins a day from our cafeteria, plus waste from a few local restaurants, and from the dairy farm.

During our class trip to the farm Matt Steiman told us that the biodigester eats around 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of waste a day, and from that they make over 500 cubic meters of gas daily.  That’s enough to  power the farm and the digester itself, as well as 10 to 15 additional homes in Carlisle. The digester also creates a large amount of fertilizer that is used by both the Dickinson farm and the Dairy farm, and both use the pulp as cow bedding and in planting soil.  The system is currently saving the farm around $11,000 a year, and that number is expected to grow in the future. (M. Steiman, personal communication, 2026).

Figure 2

Note. Figure 2 illustrates the food processor at the Dickinson College Farm

What are its benefits and drawbacks?

Benefits: Biodigesters have many benefits.  Keeping this anaerobic process within a sealed container captures the methane emissions produced by the breakdown process that would otherwise escape into the air, and is able to be turned into energy reducing the need to use other fossil fuels. Steiman also pointed out on our trip to the farm that a biodigester may cost more to set up, but it saves thousands of dollars yearly on power.

Drawbacks: Although there are many benefits, no system is perfect. Digesters are expensive to build, and need maintenance when clogged by plastic packaging or metal utensils. They also need a steady waste supply to produce energy.

Biogas on a smaller scale: Home-scale biogas systems also can have a very positive affect on women in developing countries. In his article, Steiman (2020) explores the benefits and barriers of Home-scale biogas systems. He mentions that in developing countries, tasks are usually assigned based on gender lines. Some benefits he describes  include reduced smoke inhalation/respiratory issues, reduced physical labor, additional free time for education and social activities, employment opportunities, more participation of men in cooking.  Some barriers include more time spent finding water in areas where water is scarce, men usually have final say in whether or not the system is adopted and could be denied, promotion may not reach where it needs to, women may be restricted on participation, and more time may be spent on maintenance.

Figure 3

Note. Figure 3 illustrates a home biogas system in Israel, producing gas used for cooking

Takeaways

After our class readings and the farm visit, I think the biodigester is really cool and has many advantages. However it got me thinking. The only reason we need systems like this is because we produce so much food waste.  Some of it is damaged food, some is leftovers from our plates, and a lot is food that could still be consumed. The biodigester is a system that helps us manage the waste, but each day we produce more and more.  We could install many more of these systems all over the world, yet they would not be able to keep up. I think the bigger problem we need to look at is why do we produce so much food waste, and how can we minimize it.  41 bins of waste a day, just from our cafeteria, shows that we could be making small adjustments to our lives and eating habits to help reduce waste.

Questions to think about

After everything considered, I leave you with a few questions:

Is it enough for individuals to waste less, or does the food system itself need to change?

If a biodigester makes food waste useful, does that reduce the pressure to prevent waste in the first place?

Should colleges and restaurants track and publicly share their food waste numbers?

Who should pay for systems like this, the ones implementing the system, local governments, or the businesses that produce the waste?

What’s stopping more communities from adopting these systems?

References:

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI). (n.d.-a). Fact sheet: Biogas: Converting waste to energy. EESI.  https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-biogasconverting-waste-to-energy

Gruber, P.  pgruber@lancasterfarming. com. (2026, June 16). Dickinson College Farm’s new methane digester shows benefits. Lancaster Farming. https://www.lancasterfarming.com/farming-news/conservation/dickinson-college-farm-s-new-methane-digester-shows-benefits/article_98d54a56-5b89-421e-a48f-2d4a9aa02cf3.html

Poulet, M. (2016, August 22). Israeli company converts food waste to cooking gas. The Observers – France 24. https://observers.france24.com/en/20160812-israeli-inventor-converts-food-waste-cooking-gas

Steiman, M. (2020, summer). Women and Home-Scale Biogas: Benefits, Barriers and Insights from US-based Innovators. 

Steiman, M. (2026, October 15) Personal communication, visit to the college farm

By John N. Choate, c. 1885. Carlisle, PA.

Figure 1. Image of the interior of the Dining Hall. The female and male students are sitting on opposite sides of the tables.

What is an Indigenous Foodway? 

      An Indigenous foodway is the way an Indigenous tribe hunts, gathers, and prepares food. These foodways often differ depending on the region due to what resources are readily available. An example of differing indigenous foodways could be how unalike Pueblo and Seminole diets are.  The diet of the Pueblo tribe, in the New Mexico and Arizona area, involves the three sisters of agriculture which is corn, beans, squash and wild game such as rabbit and elk. The diet of the Seminole tribe from the Florida area consists of alligator, turtle, tropical fruits, berries, and nuts. These differences represent how Indigenous foodways were shaped by available resources, geography, and cultural traditions of each community. 

The Carlisle Indian Industrial School

      The Carlisle Indian Industrial School opened in October of 1879 founded by Army Captain Richard Henry Pratt. Located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the school was the first federally managed off-reservation Indian boarding school. One of the purposes of the school was to forcibly assimilate indigenous teens into mainstream Christian American culture. The school’s approach was to strip away the children from their families and known culture so that they would adopt American customs. The school made the kids cut their hair, march to and from places, wear uniforms, and speak only in English. The students were made to follow a strict daily schedule that was a mix of academic instruction and manual labor. By forcing a separation between the children and native american culture, the passing down of cultural beliefs and customs is threatened. This often includes the foodways of their tribes. 

By John N. Choate, c. 1885. Carlisle, PA.

Figure 2. Image of the Dining Hall. This was the newly built building made to replace the original that was built in 1879. 

Food at the Carlisle Indian School

      In an excerpt from the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource, “Who would not be enthusiastic to these one hundred and eighty youths gathered from sixteen different Indian tribes, many of whom have been from time immemorial been deadly enemies to each other, three times a day marching in order from their different quarters, entering the dining hall quietly, and when seated reverently bowing the head while thanks are given for the food prepared? It is true, giving of thanks is no new thing to the Indian, for what tribe forgets to offer the first fruits of the field or the chase to Him of whom they have craved success. But to come to God through Jesus the Son, is the new thought to them, and as some are Christians, it stirs the soul with fresh fervor to hear from different tribes the breathed amen.” Excerpt from Our Dining Hall (Eadle Keatah Toh.) Carlisle Barracks, PA., May 1880.  

      As seen in the excerpt above, food at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School played a role in the assimilation of Indigenous students and separation from their traditional native cultures. Students from sixteen different indigenous tribes gathered in the dining hall three times a day (Toh, 1880).They were expected to sit quietly and bow their heads while praying to Jesus Christ before dining. For many Indigenous children, this went against the beliefs they had grown up with.  

     From an excerpt from, Indian Boarding Schools – Research Guides at South Dakota State University it states, “Of all the changes we were forced to make, that of diet was doubtless the most injurious, for it was immediate and drastic. White bread we had for the first meal and thereafter, as well as coffee and sugar. Had we been allowed our own simple diet of meat, either boiled with soup or dried, and fruit, with perhaps a few vegetables, we should have thrived. But the change in clothing, housing, food and confinement combined with lonesomeness was too much, and in three years nearly one half of the children from the Plains were dead and through with earthly schools. In the graveyard at Carlisle most of the graves are those of little ones. Luther Standing Bear (Oglala Lakota), attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School 1879 (age 11) to 1885.” Excerpt from American Indian Boarding Schools: Health. 

     In this excerpt one can see how the traditional foodways were greatly disrupted. The speaker states how awful it was on their bodies to consume foods that they were not used to. As the school replaced the students’ food related culture with unfamiliar meals they stripped away part of their identity. The students were given bread, sugar, and coffee often but were not able to consume enough protein like they had before they started the assimilation process. 

Why Examining Food in the Assimilation Process Matters

       Examining and understanding Indigenous foodways is important not only because it’s what people consumed, but because it reflects their culture, traditions, identity, and relationship with land. For many Native American communities, traditional food practices were a way to preserve their culture and connect generations. Sadly, assimilation disrupted the preservation of these cultural practices in many tribes. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School is one of many examples of the government’s efforts to Americanize Indigenous people. As they quickly separated the children from family, erased their known culture from their lives, changed their diets, and altered their looks, the Indigenous children’s identities were stripped away. Through looking at the relationship between assimilation and foodways, one can see the importance of recognizing and protecting any Indigenous foodways left. By preserving these foodways, Indigenous communities can connect to their ancestors and culture as well as have the ability to educate future generations. 

       I personally believe that it is very important to look back on history to ensure it does not repeat itself. What I cherish most about the United States is the vast amount of different cultures the country has to offer. Through stripping the Indigenous culture away, we have lost a piece of the heart of the United States. 

Questions to Think About?

How does losing access to traditional foods affect one’s connection to their culture?

To what extent would preserving natural foodways help to ensure indigenous culture is protected?

In what ways can everyday activities such as eating be used as a control tactic?

What is something society can learn after seeing the importance of Indigenous communities’ relationship with food? 

References 

      Dining Hall, c.1885. Dining Hall, c.1885 | Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource   Center. (n.d.). https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/images/dining-hall-c1885 

      Dining Hall with students, c.1885. Dining Hall with students, c.1885 | Carlisle Indian  School Digital Resource Center. (n.d.).https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/images/dining-hall-students-c1885

         Hill, C. G. (2016). Pre-Colonial Foodways. In The Routledge history of American  foodways (pp. 9-22). New York, NY: Routledge

      Publications of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Publications of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School | Elizabeth V. and George F. Gardner Library. (n.d.). https://gardnerlibrary.org/encyclopedia/publications-carlisle-indian-industrial-school 

      Research guides: American Indian Boarding Schools: Health. Health – American Indian Boarding Schools – Research Guides at South Dakota State University. (n.d.). https://libguides.sdstate.edu/c.php?g=1410783&p=10458202 

      U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). The Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Assimilation  with education after the Indian Wars (teaching with Historic Places) (U.S. National Park Service). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-carlisle-indian-industrial-school-assimilation-with-education-after-the-indian-wars-teaching-with-historic-places.htm 

When Does Adaptation Become Tradition?

“Food has a culture. It has history. It has stories, it has relationships, that tie us to our food.”

— Winona LaDuke (2012)

Fruit and Vegetable Market With a Young Fruit Seller

Figure 1
Note. Figure 1 depicts Jan van Kessel the Elder’s Fruit and Vegetable Market With a Young Fruit Seller (1650–1660), presenting food within a social and cultural setting. From Fruit and Vegetable Market With a Young Fruit Seller [Painting], by J. van Kessel the Elder, 1650–1660, Statens Museum for Kunst. CC0.

Food and Identity

Food encompasses the human experience unlike anything else. Massimo Montanari (2006) compares food to language because both communicate culture, tradition, and collective identity. Yet food, much like language, is not simply inherited and kept unchanged. It moves with people, encounters new cultures, and changes with the circumstances available to those who make it. LaDuke’s point that food carries stories and relationships is what makes the question of change feel so personal (see Figure 1).

This complicates what we mean when we call food “authentic.” We often imagine authenticity as a connection to an original version of a dish. Yet what we inherit as tradition may itself have once been adaptation. What feels traditional to one generation may simply be an adaptation that an earlier generation chose to accept and carry forward. If yesterday’s adaptation can become today’s tradition, then when does that transformation happen?

This becomes especially important when thinking about foodways, the practices and traditions surrounding how people produce, prepare, and consume food. Montanari (2006) challenges the idea that cultural identity must come from a pure beginning, focusing instead on how traditions spread and develop (pp. 134–135).

Centers of Origin and Primary Regions of Diversity for 151 Crops

Figure 2
Note. Figure 2 depicts the centers of origin and primary regions of diversity for 151 food crops, demonstrating the geographic origins of crops now consumed around the world. From “A Map of Where Your Food Originated May Surprise You,” by J. Cherfas, 2016, NPR. Map credited to The Royal Society.

When the Foreign Becomes Familiar

Pasta demonstrates how complicated this boundary can become. Pasta now seems inseparable from Italian cuisine, yet its history is not confined to Italy. Montanari (2006) explains that Arabs introduced dried pasta to Sicily, while Hebrews were also spreading it throughout Europe. As he writes, tradition can develop “very far from its places of origin” (p. 135). This does not make pasta’s place within Italian cuisine less authentic. Origin serves as a record of where something began, but tradition tells us what people chose to do with it.

At the same time, adaptation cannot mean that preservation no longer matters. Colin (2017) describes su filindeu, or “threads of God,” a rare Sardinian pasta passed down through generations and traditionally prepared for an annual pilgrimage. With only a few people possessing the skill to make it, su filindeu presents the opposite problem. Food survives because people not only adapt but also remember. The two pull against each other, since changing a dish risks losing what made it distinct, and freezing it risks losing the dish altogether. Tradition seems to live in managing that tension.

A World Already Mixed

The Columbian Exchange makes the scale of adaptation even clearer. Tomatoes traveled from the Americas before becoming central to Italian cuisine, while chili peppers became embedded in cuisines such as those of India and Korea (Nunn & Qian, 2010). Cherfas (2016) reports that foreign-origin crops account for 69% of national food supplies globally. If nearly 70% of what a country eats came from somewhere else (see Figure 2), then authenticity cannot mean original, because very little food is original to the place that claims it.

When Adaptation Becomes Personal

I am firmly pro-adaptation, and I think this matters for our generation because we encounter other cultures through food. Many of us are living away from home for the first time, and food is often the easiest way we meet someone else’s culture. That also makes us the ones deciding what gets kept, what gets borrowed, and who gets credited. That is something worth celebrating, but it also comes with a responsibility. Adaptation should not mean forgetting where something came from or removing the culture that gave it meaning.

A friend of mine, who is half Nepali and half German, made this idea real for me. At their house, pretzels are served with Nepali chicken stew, while German dishes like Leberkäse (Figure 3) are eaten with achaar (Figure 4). The first time I encountered these combinations, they seemed strange, yet eating them changed that completely. Neither culture felt erased or diluted. Both remained recognizable while creating something that belonged naturally to the family eating it.

Leberkäse

Figure 3
Note. Figure 3 depicts Leberkäse, a Bavarian specialty used to represent the German side of the German-Nepali food pairing. From Leberkäse, by GermanDeli.com, n.d.

Momo Achar

Figure 4
Note. Figure 4 depicts momo achar, a dipping sauce used to represent the Nepali side of the German-Nepali food pairing. From “Easy MOMO Achar (Requested Recipe)!!,” by nepalitummy, 2013

If that combination is eaten repeatedly, remembered, and eventually passed down, at what point does it stop being “fusion” and simply become family tradition?

For me, adaptation becomes tradition when people give something meaning, make it part of their lives, and choose to carry it forward. Authenticity should not require food to remain frozen in time. Something unfamiliar enters a kitchen. Someone decides it belongs there. Another person grows up with it. Eventually, what once looked like adaptation simply turns into tradition.

With all of this in mind, I leave you with two questions to ponder:

• Where do you see different cultures coming together in your own life, especially through food, and has that fusion changed the way you think about what makes a tradition “authentic”?
• If adaptation and cultural exchange have shaped human history for centuries, how important is our ability to adapt in keeping cuisines and traditions alive rather than simply preserving them unchanged?

References

Cherfas, J. (2016, June 13). A map of where your food originated may surprise you. NPR.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/13/481586649/a-map-of-where-your-food-originated-may-surprise-you

Colin, C. (2017, September 22). On the hunt for the world’s rarest pasta. Saveur.
https://www.saveur.com/worlds-rarest-pasta-sardinia/

GermanDeli.com. (n.d.). Leberkäse.
https://germandeli.com/products/leberkase

LaDuke, W. (2012, March 4). Seeds of our ancestors, seeds of life [Video]. TEDx Talks. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHNlel72eQc

Montanari, M. (2006). Food is culture (A. Sonnenfeld, Trans.). Columbia University Press.

nepalitummy. (2013, August 18). Easy MOMO achar (requested recipe)!! Nepali Tummy!!.
https://nepalitummy.blogspot.com/2013/08/easy-momo-achar-requested-recipe.html

Nunn, N., & Qian, N. (2010). The Columbian exchange: A history of disease, food, and ideas. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(2), 163–188.
https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.24.2.163

van Kessel, J., the Elder. (1650–1660). Fruit and vegetable market with a young fruit seller [Painting]. Statens Museum for Kunst.
https://collection.smk.dk/#/en/detail/KMSsp299

Introduction to Food Access and Food Security

Food insecurity is not contained to the most-populous 50 US cities. But, in 2024, the number of food insecure individuals across the country totaled just shy of their equivalent, roughly 48 million people or just over 13% of the population (United States Department of Agriculture [USDA], 2026c). While by no means geographically confined, rates of food insecurity are higher than average in southern states, rural areas, and highly urbanized settings (USDA, 2026c). 

Figure 1 

Note. Figure 1 displays a color-coded map of the United States, visualizing comparative rates of food security in US states between 2022 and 2024 (USDA, 2025c). 

Defining Food Security 

The USDA defines food security as having “no problems, or anxiety about, consistently accessing adequate food” (2026d). Low food security, on the other hand, does not necessarily mean eating less, but often involves supplementing diets with low-cost, low-quality food. Very low food security applies when “eating patterns of one or more household members were disrupted and food intake was reduced” (USDA, 2026d). Food security is not static; a household’s status can shift as prices, income, or living situations change (Halpin, 2026).  

Figure 2

Note. Figure 2 depicts a chart reflecting the number of US households facing low food security (8.3%) and very low food security (5.4%) (USDA, 2025c). 

Food Access and Hunger 

We tend to closely associate food access with “hunger”. Yet, in 2006, the US Department of Agriculture ceased using the term “hunger”, instead opting for  “very low food security” (Allen, 2007; Fisher, 2017). The rationale: hunger, the physical sensation, is difficult to measure and that what surveys account for is, in the end, merely household food security (USDA, 2026d). The decision was met with disdain from food access advocates who feared the decision would cause “hunger disappear from the public agenda” (Allen, 2007, pg. 22).  

Some are more skeptical about hunger-focused language, however. Food-justice advocate, Andrew Fisher, points out in his 2017 book, Big Hunger, the shortcomings associated with focusing on “hunger” in isolation. A key issue with a hunger-centric approach is that the underlying social and economic problems are swept away. Thus, we fail to “to establish […] financial, human, or social capital needed to eliminate the problem on a more permanent basis” (Fisher, 2017, pg. 21). 

Responding to Food Insecurity 

One pathway for mitigating food insecurity is through government assistance. In 2025, the largest governmental nutrition assistance program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, served around 42.1 million low-income Americans (USDA, 2026e).

A second avenue which supplements government assistance in the alleviation of food insecurity is referred to as the “charitable food distribution network” (Fisher, 2017, pg. 24). In other words, organizations that work to reduce food insecurity through donations and private funding. 

Even with government assistance, there exists a need for secondary food assistance pathways. This is, in part, due to barriers in accessing government programs like SNAP, such as the strenuous paperwork and work requirements mandated to qualify (Wilkerson et al., 2018). The passage of One Big Beautiful Bill in July 2025 made requirements even stricter and barred asylum seekers, refugees, and select other migrant groups from receiving SNAP funding (Hodges and Jones, 2026, pp. 8-9).  

Food Assistance Close to Home

On a local scale, Project SHARE and Feed Carlisle, PA are examples of charitable organizations that help bridge the gap between governmental assistance and food security in Cumberland County. Established in 1984, Project SHARE has evolved from food pantry to advocacy organization and community education center (Project SHARE, n.d.). More recently, Feed Carlisle, PA has contributed to the expansion of Carlisle’s food access network by introducing the community fridge and pantry at the Bosler Memorial Library. The idea behind the community pantry is to provide a universal and barrier-free means of accessing food for those struggling to afford groceries, supported directly by donations from community members (Feed Carlisle, PA, n.d.).

Figure 3 

Note. Figure 3 shows the community fridge and pantry located in the Bosler Memorial Library in Carlisle, PA, supported by the Feed Carlisle, PA organization (Photo by author). 

The above-mentioned governmental and charitable interventions to food insecurity are examples of what Fisher calls hunger-focused solutions. What strategies or initiatives do you think could play a role in reducing food insecurity altogether? 

Returning to a localized perspective, what do you think your role as a community member should be in addressing challenges to food access?  Where do you see opportunities to improve food access in Carlisle or in your home community?

Citations

Food is part of everyday life, but it can also tell us a lot about people, communities, and cultures. The study of food can include topics such as agriculture, nutrition, traditions, economics, sustainability, and access to food. A strong blog post should go beyond simply summarizing information and should include your own thoughts and reactions to the topic.

For example, a student might discuss how their understanding of a particular food-related issue changed after a class discussion or reading. They could then connect that idea to an outside source. According to Author (2026), food choices can be influenced by factors such as cost, culture, availability, and personal preference. This is where you would include an APA-style in-text citation.

Adding Images

Figure 1. Example caption explaining what the image shows and why it relates to the topic. Image credit: Photographer/Organization.

Images should not simply decorate the post. They should help the reader understand or think about the topic in a different way.

You can also use headings to break up longer posts and make them easier to read online.

Connecting the Topic to Your Own Experience

A blog post should also include some personal reflection. For example:

Growing up, I never thought much about where the food in a grocery store came from. Learning more about food production made me realize how many people and processes are involved before a product ever reaches the shelf.

Notice that this example connects a personal observation to the larger topic rather than simply saying, “I thought the reading was interesting.”

Figure 2. A second image related to the topic. Image credit: Photographer/Organization.

Questions for Readers

End your post with questions that encourage classmates to respond with more than a simple yes or no.

1. What factors have the greatest influence on the foods you choose?
2. Has learning more about a food-related issue ever changed the way you eat or shop?
3. What part of our food system do you think deserves more attention?

References

Author, A. A. (2026). Title of article or webpage. Website or Publication Name. URL

Author, B. B. (2025). Title of article. Journal Name, 10(2), 20–30.

Organization Name. (2026). Title of webpage. URL