Connections Quarterly Spring 2016 - Environment

Thinking about Food, Religion, and Sustainability By Whitney Sanford, University of Florida O ver the past ten years, student and faculty interest in environmentalism and sustainability has increased dramatically, and many colleges and universities have developed majors and minors in Sustainability Studies. The University of Florida, where I teach, offers a BA in Sustainability Studies (BASS, http://sustainability.clas.ufl.edu/) housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that provides an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability. Most students pair this major with more traditional disciplines, such as Biology, Religious Studies, or Urban Planning, so that they also receive deep training in a single discipline. I have taught Religion and Sustainability (a core course) twice, and, in both cases, the students have demonstrated a dedication and persistence to the material that gives me hope that our environmental future is in the right hands. In teaching this course, and others such as Religion and Food, I have found focusing on food gives students a manageable entre into sustainability studies and helps them link their personal lives to larger social and environmental issues. Conserving wilderness areas and preserving iconic species—both important goals—have tended to dominate environmental thought, but more people have begun to address the environmental and social costs of agriculture and food production. For example, how does meat consumption affect our water supply, and how has the transition to industrial agriculture affected small farmers in the US and abroad? Considering what we eat and how our food is produced leads to questions about food cultures, social equity, and energy consumption. In what follows, I will offer some practical suggestions for teaching about sustainability and environmentalism through the lens of food and agriculture. Where Does Our Food Come From? Asking students to consider what they eat and how their food was produced leads to discussions about the environmental consequences of agriculture, among other things.1 Michael Pollan’s The Page 6 Spring 2016 CSEE Connections

Connections Quarterly Spring 2016 - Environment | Page 8