Connections Quarterly Spring 2016 - Environment | страница 15

Food, Religion, and
Sustainability in the Classroom

ties course. The question “what world do
you want” directs students to consider
their future and what they consider to
be “the good life,” thus engaging them in
problem-solving rather than blaming. In
my Religion and Sustainability class, I tell
students that their real final exam is the
world they have created 40 years from
now, that is, how they live their lives responding to the challenges the current
generations have issued them.

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These discussions can lead to productive conversations and critiques about
the term ‘sustainability.’ In “Sustainability:
A Dissent,” authors Julianne Newton and
Eric Freyfogle question the slipperiness
of the term, arguing that sustaining our
world might mean simply maintaining
environmentally devastating practices,
such as industrial agriculture.9 Whereas
the term sustainability—premised on
ecology, economy, and equity—incorporates cultural and social equity into
environmental discussions, the term itself does not necessitate changed practices and leads to what some call ‘greenwashing.’ Nonetheless, sustainability has
become a buzzword in both business and
academic realms.

CSEE Connections

As students have become more interested in sustainability and environment,
they are driving faculty to incorporate
these concerns into the curriculum. AASHE (Association for the Advancement of
Sustainability in Higher Education, http://
www.aashe.org/) provides resources for
faculty at different levels. Further, a “Piedmont Project” workshop brings multi-disciplinary faculty together to brainstorm
about integrating sustainability into the
curriculum. Emory University’s Piedmont
Project (http://sustainability.emory.edu/
page/1021/Piedmont-Project) has been
duplicated at a number of schools, including the University of Florida’s Prairie
Project. The workshops give faculty who
might have had little exposure to sustainability dialogues the resources to address
sustainability and environmental issues in
the context of their own disciplines.

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Teaching about religion and sustainability or religion and ecology is challenging
because the topics are sensitive for students and faculty. For that reason though,
teaching these courses is remarkably

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Spring 2016

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