Every year billions of tons of waste are thrown into the landfill with a large part of that waste coming from food waste. According to data gathered from the Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that food makes up for around 24% of total waste making it the largest individual source of waste. Since food makes up such a large amount of waste it is important for grocery stores to have efficient waste systems in place. Luke Ross a member of Cascadia College’s BASSP program has made it his goal to create more efficient waste system withing Kroger grocery stores.
Improvement Through Education
In order to create a better waste system within grocery stores Luke has started with education. When throwing away their food most people do not think throwing the food away in whichever bin is most convenient. In order to solve this problem Luke has created a series of posters which featured Items commonly used by grocery store employees in order to show how to properly dispose of them. Using his store as a test case Luke managed to get the managers of three other stores involved implementing the same system found in his main store.
An image of the composting and sorting signs in the QFC store!
A Step in the Right Direction
In order to measure the effectiveness of the changes data has been recorded using the bins weight and the total number of bags. In the one and a half months since implementation change has been small but noticeable. Before implementation the bin averaged a weight of 2.1 lbs. which has risen to an average of 2.5 lbs. Looking at the total number of bags there has been a less noticeable change with the average compost bags used only showing an increase of 1 bag throughout this time. Although these changes have been small they are still on a steady rise and it is Luke’s hope that this amount will continue to increase into the future.
Making the Right Decisions Outside of Work
It is the goal of Luke’s project for employees to make the right decisions not just withing the workplace but also at home. Employees have been asked a series of questions in order to determine the effectiveness of the posters. These Questions include whether they have used the bin, how effective it has been in making these choices, and whether these employees have continued to make these choices when off work. Based off employees answers 60% (3 of 5) have said they have used the bins. The same 3 employees have also stated that they found the bins helpful however, only 2 have said that the posters have influenced their decisions outside of the workplace.
The Bachelor of Applied Science in Sustainable Practices program hosts students who have completed an associate degree or higher, also helping professionals with bachelor’s degrees already retrain into the sustainability field! This two year program has a capstone project as part of the program as seen above, and we invite you to look at what Cascadia College can offer you for education in Sustainability! Find out more at www.cascadia.edu/bassp
This series of blogs features guest student author Devon G on his recycled art project, featured in Mobius Gallery in Spring of 2023. Join us here for this final article in the series of thoughts and considerations on art, community, and society, and how they impact and are affected by sustainable practices – through non-recyclable plastics!
With confusion around plastic recycling, another motivation for my capstone project was aiming to find a temporary solution for plastics that are typically not accepted at recycling plants. Plastics with Nos. 3-7 on the bottom are less likely to be taken at recycling facilities throughout the United States. If these plastics are not accepted and end up in a recycling bin, they get sent to landfills. This is also similar for a lot of PLA’s – plant-based plastics – and plastics that are too small to be recovered in the sorting process [1]. These plastics that make into our landfills, oceans, rivers, and so forth, and pose a threat to our environment, animals, and us. These plastics pollute our waterways, get mistaken as food by animals, break down into microplastics (which poses threats we have yet to fully uncover), and so on [1].
These pieces were painted on large plexiglas plastics – which are not recyclable.
By using plastics that are generally not recycled, in the creation of art pieces, people can find a temporary solution for keeping non-recyclable plastics out of our waterways and oceans. More education on what plastics are accepted in an individual’s county/processing service are needed, but this is a fun way to encourage people to learn about their local recycling inputs, while also making art and contributing to less harmful waste in our waters. Eventually, it is possible for this art to take off, with styles emerging, and plastics becoming recognized for their art potential, resulting in less plastic polluting our water. This would be a temporary solution until plastic recycling is advanced, and or different packaging materials become the norm, or we find more ways in daily life to use less single-use plastics. While I recognize this is idealistic, I do believe there is potential showing this message by making art with current-day, non-recyclable plastics. Read the next blog in this series to consider more about reducing consumption and use of single use plastics!
These pieces were painted on large plexiglas plastics – which are not recyclable. These were submitted by Chris Gildow’s class!
This series of blogs features guest student author and BASSP student Devon G on his recycled art project, featured in Mobius Gallery in Spring of 2023. Join us here for this series of thoughts and considerations on art, community, and society, and how they impact and are affected by sustainable practices – by considering overconsumption and making unused items into art!
When looking at the United States’ consumption patterns, it is clear that we consume more than we likely should. Our capitalist economy encourages this behavior, through constant advertising, sales, and the next “best” thing. This leads to many of us owning more than we will ever likely need. Overconsumption is seen in our food purchasing, energy usage, clothes/goods purchasing, and so forth. This takes a toll on the environment and ourselves [1]. With art in mind, I believe many Americans can repurpose and or upcycle their excess items into something great. If these items are in working order, they should be donated or given to someone that needs them, but if they are broken and or unwanted, there is potential in repurposing them into art, or donating them to someone that has plans to.
Devon in the art gallery exhibit!
This concept is reflected in the Japanese practice of Kintsugi, which takes broken pottery and repairs it through the use of lacquer and/or powdered silver, gold, or platinum. This technique embraces the idea that items are prone to breaking, and rather than hiding it, Kintsugi highlights the imperfections of the broken pottery. Kintsugi explores the ideas of loss and rebirth, while repurposing an item that would otherwise be deemed a throwaway item [2]. Conversely, there is also merit in living with more of a minimalistic approach to our lives. While the saying can be cliché, less is more. Studies have shown that a minimalistic approach to consumption can lower stress and anxiety levels, save mental energy, increase introspection and reflection time, and a myriad of other positive benefits [3]. A minimalistic approach can make it easier to get rid of items taking up space, while also encouraging people to think about their household items and consumption habits in a different light. This promotes a repurposing mindset and may result in less overconsumption, and fewer values attached to material items.
1. Wiedmann, T., Lenzen, M., Keyßer, L. T., & Steinberger, J. K. (2020). Scientists’ warning on affluence. Nature communications, 11(1), 3107. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16941-y
3.Jain, V. K., Gupta, A., & Verma, H. (2023). Goodbye materialism: exploring antecedents of minimalism and its impact on millennials well-being. Environment, development and sustainability, 1–27. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03437-0
This series of blogs features guest student author Devon G on his recycled art project, featured in Mobius Gallery in Spring of 2023. All the opinions and statements are his own. Join us here for this series of thoughts and considerations on art, community, and society, and how they impact and are affected by sustainable practices – through AI art discussion!
Another motivator for my capstone project was the recent interest and shift towards corporations/companies using AI art in their promotional pieces and entertainment. This is becoming more common practice, and is concerning for the future of job security in art/entertainment, as well as a plethora of other unrelated sectors/industries. With mega corporations such as Disney – which pride themselves on their art/creations – using AI tools to craft their promotional pieces and parts of their show sets a standard for other corporations, businesses, people, etc. This standard encourages and normalizes the use of AI tools for work previously done by a human, trained in their expertise.
Corporations utilizing AI instead of specialized workers paints the picture that this is the new “normal”, and that the use of AI should be accepted in the art-space. This is risky behavior, especially from corporations with massive budgets that could very well pay the artists for promotional work, and have done so in the past. Not only does the use of AI art take the livelihoods of artists, but in most cases, its datasets and learning is based on the work of millions of artists, without their consent – creating an IP and copyright can of worms. With AI models learning from millions of pieces of art, corporations using AI programs to generate their art are possibly committing copyright infringement [1]. This creates an ethical, moral, and legal dilemma – all in the name of saving money. Ironically, the legal fees associated with settling lawsuits and settlements could cost more than the savings achieved from utilizing AI art.
If there is any time for the creation of human art, now is the time to encourage it. With AI art being normalized and encouraged, even for people that are not artists, now is an appropriate time to focus on human art and the people behind it. AI art will likely never be able to truly capture the nuances and characteristics of human art, this is advantageous for artists and society. Human concepts and new artistic designs cannot be created by AI art currently, as it mainly re-uses and changes existing pieces in its creation. More must be done in terms of laws and regulations surrounding AI and copyright infringement, as well as job protection for artists and other careers potentially impacted/replaced by AI – this was in part the cause of the recent strikes from actors, writers, and more.
Sustainability vs. AI Art
AI art also relies upon a large amount of electricity and server farms to operate, with cooling and other required infrastructure, all needing electricity and energy to run. While there is no specific data surrounding AI art and the energy requirements(as AI art is relatively novel), expected energy requirements for AI servers and infrastructure could match some heavily-populated European countries [2]. AI computation and its requirements has the potential to take-over cryptocurrencies in terms of emissions generated through use of these services. Opposition of AI art can be endorsed by supporting artists and human-made art, creating your own art, opposing media made with AI, and contacting your congressional representative with your concerns on the implications of AI and AI art.
This series of blogs features guest student author Devon G on his recycled art project, featured in Mobius Gallery in Spring of 2023. Join us here for this series of thoughts and considerations on art, community, and society, and how they impact and are affected by sustainable practices – through recycled art!
The main inspiration for my recycled art capstone project was a documentary we viewed in one of our classes in the Bachelor’s program in Sustainable Practices, with professor Soraya Cardenas. The name of the documentary is called Waste Land, which follows the Brazilian artist, Vik Muniz. Earlier in Muniz’s career, Muniz would work on a piece called Sugar Children, which involved photographs taken of children on a Caribbean island of St. Kitts. Upon viewing the photographs, Muniz wondered why the children photographed seemed so happy, while the adults were the opposite. Muniz realized it was the 16-hour work shifts on sugar farms that changed the adult’s moods. In other words, the sweetness was taken out of them over time, due to intense, grueling work. He realized he could use sugar to recreate those photographs, symbolizing the value of these materials and resources, while also using a medium not commonly seen in the art-world. These art pieces went on to transform Muniz’s career. The act of using sugar as an unconventional medium for art blossomed into using trash for art pieces.
Muniz’s plan was to spend two years at one of the world’s largest garbage dumps in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, looking to explore the vastness of classicism rooted in the country; to learn from the locals and workers in the area, trying to find the intentions and plans behind his upcoming pieces. Upon meeting the catadores (garbage pickers), Muniz was amazed by the spirits of these workers in unfavorable working conditions. Their spirits shifted Muniz’s plans into a collaborative effort between the catadores and Muniz. Muniz took photographs of the catadores, projected them onto a warehouse floor, and constructed the portraits using recyclables and trash collected from the trash dump. This inspired me to explore using trash/recyclable materials as a medium for art [1].
With an art medium that is not commonly used, but found everywhere, creativity and improvisation are necessary. In my experience, using trash and recyclable materials in art was a fresh undertaking. Going through the process reminded me of how much waste is generated on a daily basis, even for one household. Additionally, it raised questions around our current consumption habits, packaging amounts, future use of packaging materials, and so forth.
Art can show us the hardships and beauties present in our society. Furthermore, it can show us the intricacies and inner workings of the minds’ of artists. In exhibits and pieces like Muniz’s work, people can see workers such as catadores in a new light, and with a new level of respect, while also re-imagining art in a fresh, new way, with infinite possibilities. So below are some images from my capstone project art show in Spring 2023 in the Mobius Gallery, showcasing various artists’ art from recycled materials!
editor’s note: This article was scheduled to post in March 2020, and the hope was the feature Chelsea and her amazing work with Recology back then. But with the pandemic, and people changing jobs, Chelsea moved on from Recology. However, other BASSP graduates and students now work at Recology, and Chelsea’s interview is an fantastic example of what kind of work graduates of our bachelor’s program in sustainable practices can accomplish, and beyond. We hope you can still enjoy her interview from back then!
What are you doing now that you’ve graduated from the BASSP Program? I’ve been working as a Retail Associate and then a Lead Retail Associate at The Recology Stores since 2018. Recology is the largest employee-owned environmental services company committed to reducing waste by commodifying recyclables as much as possible.
What are your main responsibilities in your role? Does your work tie into sustainability? My main responsibility is managing store operations which includes the intake of at least 11 types of hard-to-recycle items, providing customer service to Recology customers, educating the public on what goes where and offering products designed to reduce waste. Recology’s mission is zero waste which means we’re very focused on putting resources to their highest use which is one of many ways to create a sustainable world!
What do you do on a day to day basis in your position? Each day can be very different! I might be helping customers recycle the hard-to-recycle items like styrofoam, batteries and electronics; make changes to their account, like getting a bigger yard waste bin or smaller garbage; consult with them about which of our products could reduce waste in their life; research new products or recycling resources; or merchandise the store to bring in new customers and feature our products.
What do you enjoy about your position? There are many enjoyable aspects to my job. Generally, I love creating a positive customer experience for our varied demographic where I can plant the seed of sustainability in a way that applies to that individual’s life, whether that’s helping them find ways to reuse, donate, upcycle or recycle anything and everything, educate them about why our products and services are beneficial, or provide the space to simply listen and relate to their personal journey in sustainability and living a zero waste lifestyle.
What was your best experience/memory in the BASSP program? I am the first in my family to pursue a bachelor’s degree and I felt a lot of pressure to do a good job so that my siblings knew that anything is possible. I also struggle with depression and I chose to be open about it so I could manage my expectations realistically. I can’t even begin to express my gratitude for the teachers, students and faculty that took the time and energy to support me through the program to where I could not only succeed, but really thrive. The whole experience was invaluable to me. Thank you.
Did your experience in the BASSP program help you get this position? Absolutely. Recology was always on my radar because I love their mission but in this case, networking was the catalyst. My fellow classmate 2017 alumni Elena Dashti suggested I apply to the Retail Associate position and put in a good word for me and that’s what started it all!
Are you using any skills you learned at Cascadia in your current work? I utilize many of the skills I learned in the program but it’s been primarily soft skills. I work collaboratively on projects in the store and communicate with varying departments, local government and businesses to assist in outreach, education and project development constantly!
Anything you’d tell students interested in the BASSP program? Dive in! Sustainability is broad since it applies to everything. If you’re not sure what you want to focus or specialize in, try everything you can! The program is a lot of work but is so rewarding when you hone in on your interests and apply every class to developing those. Communicate with your teachers and cohort so you can support each other. Network as much as possible and you will be surprised by how many opportunities come your way.
During my winter quarter, I experienced many new responsibilities as an Outreach Coordinator that were valuable to my growth as an employee. Each of these responsibilities improved my administrative, presentation-oriented, and educator experiences. Being an outreach coordinator for WM gives you tremendous opportunities to teach the communities you’re contracted with how to recycle. These opportunities are in the field, virtually, over the phone, in schools and leading internships, at multifamily apartments and commercial businesses, at events, through social media, through intensive reporting to Departments of Environmental Quality, and more; your voice is heard and requested by people, entities, and state departments seeking to learn more about recycling, composting, and waste sorting processes.
I want to reflect on one of my proudest projects this quarter: the time I spent working closely with a school called Green Gables Elementary in Federal Way. I was contacted by a teacher, Karen Conrad, who is looking to jump-start their school’s composting and recycling collection and seeking recycling-related education for their students. We have met several times this year to coordinate education geared toward understanding why recycling is essential. One of the best ways to educate students is to show them the sources of the materials we create products from and built-in education about how to sort waste on top of this previous education.
I was introduced to Karen’s Green Team, around nine students from the 3rd-4th grade. On our first visit, we got to know each other, learned about which materials come from which of earth’s resources, and played recycling sorting games. I was then advised that Karen wanted to empower her students to inform all of their peers about what they had learned with my class sessions, and she asked for my help training students to develop a script and visual materials so these students could teach their peers! I was initially worried—if I were a 3rd-5th grader, teaching my friends isn’t something I’d typically jump on. But after a few training sessions with the team, they were undoubtedly empowered and had an excellent time teaching once familiar with the content. Through the remaining months of the school year, all of their classes will be trained to sort compost, recycling, and garbage in their classes, and I will be posted as a waste steward during their lunch hours! To ensure their hard work is accounted for, I will also be training janitorial staff and teachers about how to sort their waste to make sure their materials can be reused repeatedly.
Through the winter quarter, I have also educated adults through a virtual presentation of a material recovery facility and visited multifamily properties to help them sort out their waste collection issues. Surprisingly, teaching these concepts to adults and seeing behavior change is more of a challenge than it is with children! I’ve learned that educating youth is an important focus area. We are helping WM solidify itself as a valuable community partner and assisting children in inheriting a cleaner, resource-stable world in the face of so much change in our climate and productivity. Giving them an education that sticks with them through interactive means is fun and keeps them keenly aware of anyone around them improperly sorting. Many children involve their families in their waste-sorting journey; they love teaching parents and guardians about what they’ve learned. Building community through sustainable education has been a joy, and I’m grateful to be a part of the WM team!
Our Bachelor of Applied Science students get real hands on field experience, and opportunities to learn in a variety of interested careers! For more information on BASSP, please go to https://www.cascadia.edu/programs/degrees/bassp.aspx or check out other student stories on the main Sustainability page!
I worked as a temporary recycling and outreach assistant for a recycling company, and this has given me new insights into how the recycling and garbage industry works, which is generally not seen by the common people. The first couple of days were a learning experience that showed me scenarios from the drivers’ as well as their supervisors’ perspectives on how they handle difficult routes, missed pickups and so much more. I got a chance to ride along with a driver once, seeing things from their point of view, it’s a difficult decision for them as well, their threshold for contamination rates of recycling bins is quite high, this driver even got out of his truck a couple of times to remove Styrofoam from residents recycling bins, which isn’t his responsibility, but he did that because for the most part, those people were trying to recycle the right things and he was quite aware of that.
I am glad I got to start this internship working with kids and I still remember the props we made which included half garbage items and half recyclable items and us driving from one school to the other setting up those props for the relay game. We began by asking the kids what they knew about recycling and then once when the kids were engaged enough, we played the relay game, and you get to see from a kid’s view what they see as trash and recycling. Kids are extremely smart even when they didn’t know whether an item was trash or not, they looked into the item to see whether it had any information about such things, and the fact that kids never stopped themselves from asking questions like why this wouldn’t go into a recycling bin even though it has these three recycling arrows. I believe these kids have a strong and better knowledge of what goes into a recycle bin and what does not. This gave me a little bit of satisfaction and happiness knowing that I was able to educate and create awareness among a handful of kids who are the next generation. I had the experience of visiting the material recovery facility which is this humongous facility where almost all of Washington state’s recyclable contents finally reach. I was able to see how contaminants like a long piece of cord or a thread and especially plastic bags get wrapped up in these huge circular metal discs. Twice a day workers had to shut down the entire machinery and physically get in between and on top of those machines to cut them using pliers which is not only expensive but involves a safety concern as well. I was able to see the contamination rate at these facilities because of food scraps, spoiled liquids, and so many other decaying materials. These facilities had rodent and bird problems, to control the situation, the company hired a woman who stood by with a predatory bird to keep those rodents and birds in check. Her job was to stand there for hours holding onto the bird and making sure the workers were able to work in peace.
The other major role for me was to wake up early at 4 am to take pictures of certain residents recycling bin contents before the driver starts his route. This was another experience that we had to do for a couple of months. After taking these pictures I had to gather information and analyze data for the contamination percentage and figure out the type of contamination and then educate residents accordingly. We did this by tagging their carts with relevant information after the first pictures were taken, two weeks later we went back again to check for progress and then another 2 weeks later to see further improvements. A lot of residents were glad that we were researching and educating people about better recycling practices. I am happy and grateful to know this was my first internship related to sustainability as it gave me a lot of inside inputs and contacts to move forward in this field.
Our Bachelor of Applied Science students get real hands on field experience, and opportunities to learn in a variety of interested careers! For more information on BASSP, please go to https://www.cascadia.edu/programs/degrees/bassp.aspx or check out other student stories on the main Sustainability page!
I was able to get my internship from a family friend who owns their own business. I have been learning about the company Crystalyn Kae for a long time now. It is a small company in Seattle, that takes fabric that would have ended up in the landfill and makes it into beautiful one of a kind bags. One of the few businesses in the world that uses upcycling techniques in their creation process is Crystalyn Kae. I’m writing today for those who value social justice and have a strong desire to tell their own story to describe this business I interned with.
My project with this company was to find different ways to use the scraps that come from making these bags. My idea was to make a class in the workshop, where people could come in and make their own patchwork design from the scraps. To make this happen I had to figure out how long the class would go on and what the cost would be. We did several trial runs and were able to figure it out. The newsletter and blogpost were written several times over and ahead of time. Once everything had been figured out of where, when, how; the newsletter and blog were posted.
I have gained a lot more respect for anyone who handcrafts and/or owns their own business. While working for Crystalyn Kae I have been shown how much it takes to make one bag. Everything is made my hand and for sure takes more than one person. Even making an ad, blog post, and edit to a newsletter takes hours to actually create.
So far my internship at Crystalyn Kae has helped me learn many skills that I will learn in the future in my career.
We’ll hear more from Mary later in the year! If you’re interested in various sustainability internships and work our students do, please check out the main Sustainability page!
co-written by Stephan Classen and Rachel Luther, UWB Sustainability Coordinator
I keep getting this question – when we host food events, when we talk about agriculture, or food systems, food access, and food waste: How is Food part of Sustainability? Isn’t that more social justice focused, or at least – why are the Sustainable Practices Offices focusing on food?
Well, it’s actually not a big jump – as food is one of the main topics that sustainable practices can impact – locally, personally, on campus, and beyond.
Personal Impact
The choices that you make as an individual might not seem like they matter very much, but in reality every choice is like a domino effect. Flicking over one domino or making one small lifestyle change might not make a huge difference, but when you stop to watch how your choices affect all of the interconnected pieces of our lives and others’ it’s like watching the dominoes cascading down the line. Food is incredibly interconnected, not just because it is a social justice issue, an equity issue, a sustainability issue, and more, but also because our food system itself is so incredibly complex.
Take the hamburger example. You may choose to stop at McDonald’s this very day to buy a $3 hamburger on your way home. This decision to buy a hamburger from McDonald’s may seem flippant, but let’s consider the ripple effect of that decision. A hamburger is made of beef which is one of the most environmentally destructive foods. That single hamburger required as much water as you would use in your shower for 2 months. The problem with beef is that a cow requires a lot of food to get up to the required weight and to do that, they are usually fed grain and corn. Corn is another extremely inefficient crop because it grows slowly and requires a lot of fertilizer and pesticides to keep up the high yields that farmers demand. So not only does it require a lot of land, and a lot of chemicals, and a lot of water to produce a hamburger, it also presents a justice issue. What could you choose instead?
And yet, as a social issue, many people live in food deserts – a location in a city or town where their only options within a 5 mile radius is a McDonald’s hamburger. How do we create more food options for people who are limited in choices? We can all agree that more fruit and vegetables are needed for healthy diets over hamburgers, but the system is not that simple for many Americans, much less the rest of the world. Healthy, affordable food options aren’t available for more people that we realize.
A vegetarian diet uses much less land and resources than a traditional meat-heavy American diet, a vegan diet uses even less. But asking everyone to go vegan or even vegetarian is a lot. Just reducing your meat consumption can make a huge difference! Think about the impacts of one hamburger, if you choose to eat the equivalent of one less hamburger per week, that actually has a large impact. Individual choices have an even larger impact if everyone pitches in just a little bit. If everyone in the world ate closer to three portions of meat about the size of a deck of cards per week, meat consumption would be on a much more sustainable trajectory. So never say that your choices don’t matter!
Campus Food
Food availability might be a challenge on campus, but it’s an important issue for more than just where to find lunch or coffee! There is growing information about food insecure students, and our Kodiak Cave and Husky Pantry are there to serve and support students – including with goals about nutrition and food access we mentioned above!
The campus farm is also open to students and staff who are interested in learning how to grow their own food. Excess food harvested from the farm gets donated to the Kodiak Cave and Husky Pantry, but the farm is actually open to anyone on campus who is brave enough to pick from it. If you are interested in gardening but you don’t know how to get started we are hosting a series of lunches at the farm where you can learn introductory gardening skills during spring quarter.
Local Food
Food transportation is a major equity and environmental issue – so it’s everything sustainability covers. Climate impacts of food growing through agriculture, environmental damage from pesticides, carbon emissions from transportation, food waste through loss, rot, and things thrown away, are all various environmental concerns about food.
Health issues from eating those pesticides, access to nutritious food, and chemical concerns within foods are all equity concerns.
Where does local food fit in? It can solve all the above problems – if grown right!
Many local farms are organic or at least pesticide free. The distance from farm to your table makes a huge impact for both food waste and carbon pollution. A local farm is also community based – so it helps your neighbors and your own food access in cases of catastrophe! Buy local where you can, and support regenerative farming!
We are lucky to live so close to so many amazing farms, Seattle has lots of year-around farmers markets and nearby cities like Woodinville and Carnation are home to farms and farm stands like Oxbow, Carnation, and 21 Acres.
Plus, as people grow their own food in gardens, you rely less on the grocery store – look at egg prices right now, with a supply shortage and Avian Flu killing chickens, egg prices are skyrocketing!
People connect over food
Food is a social thing too, from cultural elements, sharing, and connecting with others over a meal. Joy and positivity are always a part of sustainability! We have to find ways to adapt, build community, and support others in society if we want to build a better world! Food has built and sustains many cultures around the world because it can be a social act of showing someone that you care, learning more about them, and spending quality time together. Many traditional foodways are being lost to the commercialization of food, but learning how to cook for yourself is an essential life skill. PCC Markets offers fun cooking classes and if you are interested in learning more, Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino is a fascinating story about the traditional foods that are being lost to globalization.
Resources
Want to learn more about food, agriculture, climate change, and beyond? Tune in for the Ag/food Climate Speaker Series, part of our campus Climate Dialogs!
Integrate It! 