Farmers' market moved off campus
Alex Chambers
Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: Opinion
It turns out UA students and faculty members will be able to get fresh, local produce this summer. It looked, for a little while, that it wasn't going to happen, since the University refused to allow Homegrown Alabama to have its weekly market on campus. But the market will begin, as planned, tomorrow at Canterbury Chapel, on the corner of University Boulevard and Hackberry Lane.
In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, there will be baked goods, coffee, soaps, shrimp, eggs, honey and live music weekly through early October.
We are grateful to everyone who helped Homegrown Alabama - a student group whose long-term goal is to get locally-grown food into the campus dining halls - organize this market.
But we are also embarrassed to have an administration so ignorant about the relationship between food, health, economics, our community and their own educational goals, that they would shut down a student-organized event that would strengthen all of those areas.
By making local food accessible to students, a farmers' market can teach the health benefits of seasonal eating. Other universities seem to understand this: a recent news update from the University of California-Davis said their campus farmers' market "complements UC Davis' own Foods for Health Initiative, an interdisciplinary effort that is addressing issues including nutrition, obesity, the availability of healthy foods, organic farming and industrial food production." I don't think we have an initiative like that here, but maybe we should, since Alabama was ranked as the third-most obese state in 2007.
Seasonal eating provides the variety nutritionists are calling for more and more now. There's intellectual exercise in seasonal eating, in that you have to be creative in deciding how to deal with spring onions and rutabagas. Even more important is that fresh produce actually tastes good, as compared to the bland, rubbery broccoli and soft spinach you get at the Ferguson Center Food Court's salad bar - though as campus salad bars go, it's a good one, and I'm glad it's there. Taste probably seems irrelevant in a discussion of educational benefits, but I would suggest that the pleasure of eating fresh, healthy food is more central to the human experience than most of what we teach at the University, from macroeconomics to "Hamlet."
Farmers' markets improve national and environmental security, in that they reduce our dependence on foreign oil by reducing our dependence on foreign food - which is to say, food that's been trucked to the grocery stores from California, Chile or New Zealand. (The average item on an American plate has traveled 1,500-2,500 miles, according to Monday's The Tuscaloosa News). They keep our money local, too, since the money the farmers make stays here rather than flying off to corporate headquarters in New York or London.
Concern about the local community was one of the reasons the administration gave Homegrown Alabama for denying them permission. They thought a campus market might compete with the city's efforts to develop the city market, which happens under the Lurleen Wallace bridge most Saturday mornings.
But when you've tasted good food, you tend to want more. A campus farmers' market would do far more good for our local economy and community than harm. As people learn how satisfying it is to know the people who have grown their food and how much better it tastes - as they socialize, meet new neighbors, make connections between the farmers, the University community and the city, all while learning about local politics and nonprofit organizations (as happens at some markets throughout the country), and enjoying some music and a cup of coffee - they start to seek out other venues. A culture that cares about local food develops. This helps farmers and, by extension, anyone who eats.
If the city is truly interested in developing the Saturday market - and I think that should be a vital piece of their downtown revitalization project - the Homegrown Alabama model might offer some ideas for drawing in more customers.
Rather than pushing it off campus, the administration should welcome the creativity and energy Homegrown Alabama is bringing to our university (something UA's entrepreneurship Web site, at least, seems to value) along with honey, greens and, when August rolls around, scuppernongs, all from Tuscaloosa County.
Come support Alabama farmers and student initiatives starting tomorrow, from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at Canterbury Chapel.
Alex Chambers is a graduate student in creative writing.
In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, there will be baked goods, coffee, soaps, shrimp, eggs, honey and live music weekly through early October.
We are grateful to everyone who helped Homegrown Alabama - a student group whose long-term goal is to get locally-grown food into the campus dining halls - organize this market.
But we are also embarrassed to have an administration so ignorant about the relationship between food, health, economics, our community and their own educational goals, that they would shut down a student-organized event that would strengthen all of those areas.
By making local food accessible to students, a farmers' market can teach the health benefits of seasonal eating. Other universities seem to understand this: a recent news update from the University of California-Davis said their campus farmers' market "complements UC Davis' own Foods for Health Initiative, an interdisciplinary effort that is addressing issues including nutrition, obesity, the availability of healthy foods, organic farming and industrial food production." I don't think we have an initiative like that here, but maybe we should, since Alabama was ranked as the third-most obese state in 2007.
Seasonal eating provides the variety nutritionists are calling for more and more now. There's intellectual exercise in seasonal eating, in that you have to be creative in deciding how to deal with spring onions and rutabagas. Even more important is that fresh produce actually tastes good, as compared to the bland, rubbery broccoli and soft spinach you get at the Ferguson Center Food Court's salad bar - though as campus salad bars go, it's a good one, and I'm glad it's there. Taste probably seems irrelevant in a discussion of educational benefits, but I would suggest that the pleasure of eating fresh, healthy food is more central to the human experience than most of what we teach at the University, from macroeconomics to "Hamlet."
Farmers' markets improve national and environmental security, in that they reduce our dependence on foreign oil by reducing our dependence on foreign food - which is to say, food that's been trucked to the grocery stores from California, Chile or New Zealand. (The average item on an American plate has traveled 1,500-2,500 miles, according to Monday's The Tuscaloosa News). They keep our money local, too, since the money the farmers make stays here rather than flying off to corporate headquarters in New York or London.
Concern about the local community was one of the reasons the administration gave Homegrown Alabama for denying them permission. They thought a campus market might compete with the city's efforts to develop the city market, which happens under the Lurleen Wallace bridge most Saturday mornings.
But when you've tasted good food, you tend to want more. A campus farmers' market would do far more good for our local economy and community than harm. As people learn how satisfying it is to know the people who have grown their food and how much better it tastes - as they socialize, meet new neighbors, make connections between the farmers, the University community and the city, all while learning about local politics and nonprofit organizations (as happens at some markets throughout the country), and enjoying some music and a cup of coffee - they start to seek out other venues. A culture that cares about local food develops. This helps farmers and, by extension, anyone who eats.
If the city is truly interested in developing the Saturday market - and I think that should be a vital piece of their downtown revitalization project - the Homegrown Alabama model might offer some ideas for drawing in more customers.
Rather than pushing it off campus, the administration should welcome the creativity and energy Homegrown Alabama is bringing to our university (something UA's entrepreneurship Web site, at least, seems to value) along with honey, greens and, when August rolls around, scuppernongs, all from Tuscaloosa County.
Come support Alabama farmers and student initiatives starting tomorrow, from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., at Canterbury Chapel.
Alex Chambers is a graduate student in creative writing.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
sarge
posted 5/01/08 @ 7:01 PM CST
The University should by the most cost-effective food products available, regardless of where they originate.
student
posted 5/02/08 @ 1:46 AM CST
Don't you realize you silly, silly writer, the university thinks that the state of Alabama is tapped out. Therefore, everything that we recruit must come from out of state. (Continued…)
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