Class stresses food choices
February 28, 2007
From Stevens Point Journal
By Carlos Gieseken
Stevens Point Journal staff
What people eat should be an informed, carefully thought-out choice, not simply the cheapest or easiest thing available for dinner, said University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point food and nutrition professor Jasia Steinmetz.
For the past six years, Steinmetz has taught "The Ecology of Food," in which students learn about the path food takes from production, processing and distribution to the plate.
"Every time you eat, you're voting for something," Steinmetz said. "You should know what you are voting for."
Students are taught to analyze the economic, agricultural, health, societal and environmental impact of what they eat and where they buy it. A trip to the grocery store, where food may have traveled thousands of miles on trucks that burn fuel, has different impact from a trip to the farmer's market, where the produce probably comes from within the same county.
That shopping trip itself has a different impact depending on whether it was made on foot, by bike, with friends or by yourself.
"I like how the class makes us think about the environment and how our actions impact it," said sophomore dietetics major Amber Walter.
Topics discussed include biodynamic farming, community-supported agriculture, farm-to-school programs and the slow food movement.
At the beginning of the semester, students were asked to list five changes they'd make to lead a more sustainable lifestyle and to keep a semester-long journal on their progress.
Junior dietetics major Denise Heimstead ended up with nine changes to work toward.
"For me personally, I was looking for a lot of changes on how my choices impact the environment but I didn't know where to start," she said. "(Steinmetz) gives you a lot of information and a lot of resources."
Many of Heimstead's goals are small, such as freezing leftovers, eating less preprocessed foods or bringing water to boil quicker using a lid. Others are more involved, like researching local farms to find out what they have to offer or carefully planning menus before shopping for a meal to ensure less waste.
"There are a lot of things that are pretty easy to do, you just have to think about them," she said.
Tuesday's class focused on the economic impacts of food. Everything from the farmer's costs for machinery maintenance or the immigrant labor used for chicken processing to the cost of refrigeration for a distributor and the cost of oil or spices used in cooking were discussed.
"I always tell students that I'll probably ruin the way that they eat," Steinmetz said.