With upwards of 42,000 students on
campus daily, the University of Washington (UW) is an epicenter for education.
While this may include your traditional courses such as English and Calculus,
the UW has much more than just course credits to offer. Every year, new and
returning students have the opportunity to start up new organizations, called
Registered Student Organizations (RSOs), in an area of their interest. Several
of these RSOs are dedicated to environmentalism, many of which focus more
narrowly on the food movement.
University of
Washington Student Food Cooperative (UWSFC)
The UWSFC is a student-run cooperative that strives to not
only bring student-voice to the campus food system, but to bring education to
those that need it. Created just a few years ago, the cooperative has battled
through bureaucracy to bring students at the UW the opportunity to get involved
in the food movement. Every week the UWSFC hosts a meeting in which every
student at the university is invited to join. During these meetings, core
members of the cooperative discuss future plans as well as educate the
newcomers about the five Ws of the food movement (who, what, where, when, and
why).
A very popular and successful project that the UWSFC has
brought to the campus is the bulk buying club. Because of the high price of
tuition, college students often times have a difficult time supporting a
movement with their wallets, so to speak. Because of this, it can be difficult
even for somebody passionate about sourcing foods free of GMOs to be able to
support themselves. The bulk buying club offers students the opportunity to
overcome this barrier by sourcing local, high-quality, organic, non-GMO
foodstuffs at wholesale costs. The bulk buying club of the UWSFC is currently
the RSO’s main way to fight against GMOs in our food.
In addition to the bulk buying club, the UWSFC is pushing to
get a student run café on campus that sources locally and organically grown
ingredients to serve to students. The organization also hosts massive banquets
in the University’s student union building in order to get students interested,
educated, and involved in the food movement.
University of
Washington Farm
The UW Farm, approaching its 10th year in
existence, is dedicated to teaching as many students about sustainable
agriculture as possible. This includes not only the “How To’s” of growing your
own food without the use of pesticides, fossil fuels, and synthetic
fertilizers, but information about food politics as well. With over 600 members
and two farm sites, the UW farm offers students an alternative way of ensuring
that the food they consume is free of GMOs: growing it yourself. It is their
hope that students will take the knowledge they have gained during their time
with the UW Farm and bring it to the community at large. By doing so, students
advocate in a variety of different ways against big agribusiness and for a sustainable, healthful, GMO-free
future.
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