College considers food studies

The Food Subcommittee of the Environmental Council held an open meeting with students, faculty and administrators on Feb. 22 debating the potential creation of a food and agriculture studies program at the College.

Students discussed hopes and concerns regarding the major with committee members Ben Blackshear ’12 and Amanda Warren ’11.5. Dean of Curriculum, Director of the Natural Sciences and Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry Bob Cluss and Professor of Biology Helen Young were also in attendance.

Blackshear and Warren are also the student directors of the Organic Garden, which is the current home of the movement to create the program.

“The fact that Dean Cluss and Helen Young are here being supportive of us and trying to make this happen is a really big deal,” said Warren.

The official movement for a food and agriculture studies program began in 2009 when Warren taught a Winter Term course dubbed “Food Justice in Vermont.”

“Fifty students signed up for 12 spots,” said Warren. “That student support was the catalyst to get things going.”

Young, the chair of the Environmental Council, says that while the program is far from being listed in the catalog, Monday’s meeting is a move in the right direction.

“We know that there’s interest among students in incorporating food into the curriculum,” she said. “We need to figure out how to do it.”

Warren says that the Subcommittee will now hold a similar meeting with faculty to determine the overlap between what students want and what faculty currently teach.

“The ideal situation would be to figure out how to create this minor with the faculty already here,” she said. “If there are significant gaps, we would have to find a way to bring in new professors.”

Arielle Lattanzi ’13 attended the meeting and says the program is long overdue.

“Food is by necessity a huge part of our lives, and we should be conscientious and educate ourselves in order to ensure environmentally-friendly agriculture and humane treatment of livestock,” she wrote in an e-mail. “If I were an incoming freshman and the food studies program was established, I would be the first one with the major declaration form!”

Blackshear and Warren were particularly pleased with the first-year student turn out. Eleven of the 28 students present were first-years.

“The large freshman interest is a reflection of not only the food movement getting stronger here at Middlebury, but across the country,” said Blackshear. “It’s really getting to be a big thing.”

Despite the widespread support for the program at the meeting, Cluss says there needs to be more than just student support to create a Food and Agriculture studies program.

“In order to support any program in food studies we first need to identify faculty to reliably teach the courses and to advise students,” said Cluss.

But Warren says the College has more than enough current faculty and courses.

“We personally think that there are enough courses at Middlebury right now to make a thorough interdisciplinary minor in food and agriculture studies,” she said. “I think people could start completing this minor right now.”

Cluss says that a likely progression would be to establish the program as a minor and gauge student and faculty interest before considering a major.

“It would have to grow a little first, then expand into something that might become a major,” he said. “If there is enough student, faculty and administrative support, it would be possible to have a minor within a couple of years.”

Blackshear, Warren and the students at the meeting are more optimistic.

“[Warren and I] will both do everything in our power to make the program something official before we graduate in a year,” Blackshear said.

But Young says that the progress made by her committee is more significant than just a meeting between students, faculty, and administrators.

“The movement shows that students can effect change on this campus at the curricular level,” she said. “I want to see [the program] happen in part to acknowledge that move.”

There will be a follow-up interest meeting on Tuesday, March 1 at 12:30 p.m. in Hillcrest 103.