Defining Sustainability

According to the official definition from RCW 15.92.010, in Washington State "‘Sustainable agriculture’ means a systems approach to farming, ranching, and natural resource production that builds on and supports the physical, biological, and ecological resource base upon which agriculture depends. The goals of sustainable agriculture are to provide human food and fiber needs in an economically viable manner for the agriculture industry and in a manner which protects the environment and contributes to the overall safety and quality of life.”
A recent article in U.S. News and World Report called ‘New Tools for Sustainable Farming’ the popularity of the term sustainable and cites a report from the Technische Universitaet Muenchen that endeavors to give the term a more definitive meaning. This group of scientists started out with an ambitious research question: How can the sustainability status of farms with available operating data be determined and systematically improved?
Years of painstaking research allowed them to develop indicators and models to evaluate and optimize the sustainability of agricultural practices. The German Agricultural Society, working in conjunction with the Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim to add the economic and social factors necessary to balance the assessment, now has a certification system that is being used by agriculture and the food industry as well. It is called “Sustainable Farming – Fit for the Future” and it meets European DIN standards as well.
Maybe now ‘sustainability’ will be easier to measure and prove instead of merely a fashionable label.

United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency Report on Organic Food

Capitol Press published an article last week titled Study slams organics that seemed to purport that the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) had done a study that found that organic products were not nutritionally superior to conventionally produced food products.

Actually the FSA report is only a literature review that examines 162 articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals from Jan. 1, 1958 to Feb. 29, 2008. It is merely a review of the available and credible published data. It does not examine environmental impact or pesticide use. It does nothing more that compile the data that has been gathered to date. More than any kind of judgement of organic and non-organic growing, it is a review of only what has been studied about nutrition in this field to date.

Evidently, some have misconstrued this and interpreted the study as a condemnation of organic farming. The Capitol Press article interviews producers from Washington, Oregon and California who principally argue against reaching these other conclusions. The study never advocates one product over another and repeatedly states the limits of the study and why it was undertaken. It could be the springboard for more investigation because it evaluates and condenses the information that has been available in a more scattered fashion. One of the reasons it was undertaken was because of the rising global demand for organic food.

What do we teach in the school cafeteria?

At School Lunch Talk there is an interesting article about how school lunch is approached in France. There, food is part of a larger picture that includes making good choices, proper eating habits and good manners. The author, Deborah Lahmann, suggests that this is a way to use lunch time as an educational tool for nutrition, preparation techniques and cultural heritage whereas the typical American approach is only to use school lunch as a re-fueling time before getting back to class. She advocates making food a higher priority, and taking advantage of the cafeteria as another classroom.
A later entry deals with Italy where there is a law that mandates schools and other institutions to use local organic products where possible and to comply with the National Institute of Nutrition. Instead of parents advocating, the state is mandating. An important part of this is that the government is willing to pay, like they are in France, and the price of lunches is subsidized by the city. In fact they pay at least half the cost of every lunch, and even more if the students come from poorer economic backgrounds. Compare that to the US where the government pays much less and the total spent on lunches is significantly less.

An interesting read

The School Food Revolution: Public Food and the Challenge of Sustainable Development is a new book about the current debates that revolve around the school cafeteria: nutrition, sustainability, social inclusion, economics, etc.
To the authors it it is becoming clear that the school food service can provide many benefits. The book examines many of the fashionable trends in foods and schools and analyzes the results that have actually been produced in diverse communities including programs like the UN’s Home Grown Program.

British Targeting Pre-schoolers and Teens with Healthy Eating Initiatives

The Guardian reported recently that British programs are now beginning to focus on children under five years old to develop healthy eating habits early. Here's the story: A look at the kids' menu.

An earlier Observer article noted that the UK government is launching an advertising campaign linking healthy eating with success at sports, in an effort to increase student participation in school lunch programs: School meals campaign to target teenagers. This is in response to a study that reported that schools were serving healthier meals, but that in 19 of 26 schools, fewer students were eating school lunches because they didn't like them.

Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef frequently credited with starting Britain's school food revolution (though in fact change was already happening in various places), blames underfunding and slow implementation for the poor uptake of healthier school meals, saying that kitchen staff training and kitchen facilities have not been put into place as they should have been. Oliver blames government for dinners failure.

If You Build It, Will They Come?

UK's Ofsted report reveals (among other interesting findings) that school children are not immediately won over to healthier, fresher recipes in British schools. The report provides insight into student response to school meal reform in Britain. It also looks at non-lunch foods like breakfast programs and vending machines, and addresses such things as free lunch stigma, the eating environment and social uses of lunchtime, and healthy eating curriculum changes. (Guardian article; Ofsted Report)

From Before the Birth of the Digest

9/6/07 - School Lunch Abroad - Culinate.com writer Deborah Madison tells an inspiring tale of visiting school lunchrooms in France's Loire Valley on a trip with the International Exchange Forum on Children, Obesity, Food Choice, and the Environment. Ms. Madison describes not only quality food and nutritious lunches, but also the pleasant eating environment and family-style service at the schools. Be sure to take a look at the comments at the end of her article--it's often where the interesting questions arise!

5/22/07 - Grow Montana reports on passage of a Montana Senate Bill that allows flexibility for direct purchase of local food product for institutions when it meets certain criteria for price and quality.