LAST WEEK, Student Council passed a resolution supporting the creation of the community Garden Project proposed by the Environmental Sustainability Committee. Everyone can agree that we need to consume and waste less, and this project takes those ideals from words to actions. The University has recently taken several different steps to reduce its environmental impact and this garden is another step in the direction of sustainable living at the University. The initiative shown by the Committee is admirable, and the garden deserves the support of faculty and students alike.
The benefits of locally grown produce include reducing foreign oil consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and eating food that is fresher and less processed than produce that must travel to the grocery store and then sit there for a few days. The more people buy locally grown food, the more farmers will grow and sell food locally once they know there is a market for it. Sustainable living must be spread throughout a community in order for the benefits of it to be reaped.
Sustainable living begins with education, in order for people to know what impact their everyday habits have on the environment. This is why the Community Garden Project will be so beneficial. It will consist of an academic component that teaches students how to enact sustainable living practices. This program is very similar to the ecoMOD project taken on by the Engineering and Architecture schools. This joint venture has recently completed its third house. Each house built through ecoMOD has had a different focus, but all work to bring together sustainability and affordability in housing. The houses built by the ecoMOD project are made for low-income tenants, who can truly benefit from the reduced energy and water costs that these sustainable houses have. This is a real world project in which the Architecture and Engineering students design and build houses themselves with faculty guidance.
The benefit of projects that take sustainability from classroom teaching to real world living is that the more people understand sustainable living, the more it can be implemented in everyday life. As more and more students have hands-on experience at the college level, it will begin to show up in community planning across the nation. It’s not enough to say that sustainability is a worthy goal — we must give towns and cities the resources to become sustainable, and the most important of those resources is knowledgeable people that can assist in transitioning societies from old habits to new ones.
The second goal of the Community Garden Project is also a worthy one, although it could be improved upon. Currently the Committee plans to send the produce grown to a local homeless shelter. Since the garden could not, in its initial stages, turn out enough produce to supply the University dining halls, the food it does produce should go to those who need it most. However, what would truly be sustainable living is if the garden were to be expanded to meet at least some of the needs of the University dining services.
While that would be a huge undertaking, it would save the University untold amounts of money by growing its own produce, as well as being a profound educational experience for those involved in such a large project. If the garden were to be taken in that direction, it would be a giant step towards making the University a sustainable institution unto itself. Melissa Warnke, the Committee Chair, said that the project is intended to “start small, on-Grounds.” She added that if it is successful, the Committee hopes to expand it to a larger plot capable of fulfilling some of the University’s produce needs.
As it is, the Community Garden Project is a great idea and will provide a valuable educational experience for students, as well as locally grown produce for the less fortunate. If the initial project is successful, it would be a great idea for the committee to take it a step further and try to address some of the University’s produce needs. Sustainable living is something that must be cohesively practiced within a community for it to have a real effect, and locally grown food is a major component of sustainable living. Sustainability must start somewhere, and it is promising that the committee has taken this step toward making the University a more sustainable community.
Annette Robertson is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. She can be reached at a.robertson@cavalierdaily.com
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