Month: March 2020

I found this case study project very interesting. I loved learning about UC Davis’ edible campus. I really wish we could implement something like this on campus. Having gardens on campus would be such a great opportunity for students to get involved on campus and provide healthy sustainable food for the dining hall. Campus and urban agriculture will be a crucial movement for sustainable food in our country.

The STARS project gave me an insight to the immense process it is to certify an organization’s level of sustainability. Even though my partner and I only tackled one section of the questions, we were able to see how much detail is required to complete this kind of certification. It also made me realize what the University can be doing differently, specifically in food and dining. Answering these questions highlighted the areas in which we are lacking. One thing that I found frustrating was that Parkhurst was not able to provide answers on a lot of specific data questions. The main reason for this was they do not produce reports for individual schools, and since Parkhurst was not the dining provider last year, they cannot produce information about last year. Besides these road bumps, I found the project insightful and helpful in understanding sustainability at a university level.

The guest lecture from Jamie Moore gave me a great deal of information about the inner workings of Parkhurst. His presentation specifically highlighted the process of sourcing foods. It was very interesting to hear how such a large corporation that is comprised of multiple food service companies supplies their food. Seeing the criteria that Parkhurst has when selecting sources for food vendors gave me a greater appreciation for how hard it is for them to get new items or if they want to change something. I also learned specifics of sustainable farming and sustainable certifications. Jamie highlighted the difference between cage-free chickens and caged chickens. Many people confuse cage-free with free range. In reality, cage-free chickens are stuffed together in a barn and never see the light of day. The information presented to us gives me a much better understanding of the industrial food industry.