A quiet, delicious revolution

What is healthful food? Is it a spring strawberry, fresh from a local, organic farm? A nonfat yogurt or a fortified energy bar? A food with low-calorie, low-fat, low-sugar or low-carb in the name? It's a question whose answer we constantly seek, and it's one that Dining Services is trying to address. Who knew?

On April 4, 2008, The Daily Princetonian published an editorial ("For the Love of Pasta Salad") mourning the death of the Healthy Eating Lab in Frist Campus Center and urging the University to "ensure that inexpensive, healthy food options remain easily available." The editorial missed the facts reported on Dec. 10, 2007: the Healthy Eating Lab is simply moving and expanding.

Though I was 100 pages deep into my senior thesis and averaging five hours of sleep a night, this editorial caught my attention.

On one hand, this piece has two errors that should be corrected because the reality deserves praise, not criticism. Yes, the new cafe, Witherspoon Sweets, will serve Bent Spoon ice cream, Small World coffee and pastries. But it will not serve candy. Cafe Vivian will be replaced by a sustainable deli serving local, organic sandwiches, flatbread pizza and soup alongside a grain and salad bar. This new menu will expand, not limit, the healthful options at Frist.

How is this local, organic, humane food healthful? There is hardly space to answer the question.

Local produce contains more vitamins and minerals than globally transported food, which loses these nutrients in the time between its harvest and its consumption. U.S. Department of Agriculture studies show that local organic produce contains 50 percent more vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other micro-nutrients on average than conventionally farmed produce. The Environmental Protection Agency considers 60 percent of herbicides, 90 percent of fungicides and 30 percent of insecticides in industrial agriculture potentially carcinogenic. Organic standards keep these harmful chemicals out of our food and prohibit antibiotics in animal feed and medicines in conventional beef production, which can create antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Furthermore, beef, lamb and dairy products from grass-fed animals contain more vitamin E, omega-3 fats and conjugated linoleic acid, a fat that fights obesity, cancer and heart disease.

This healthful food expands the University's previous definition of "healthy food" as demonstrated by the Healthy Eating Lab. Granted, such food is a far cry from the pasta salad whose loss was lamented by the editorial board of the ‘Prince.' But we should be excited that delicious new salads are not far from our biodegradable plates.

The editorial board's outcry, though somewhat misinformed, confirms that students want more healthful food. When Princeton students ask, our administration should listen to such a strong appeal.

But Dining Services has been listening for a long time. By next fall, more than 25 percent of Dining Services' food purchases will be made within a 200-mile radius. Foods like organic salads and grass-fed beef already show up on our plates frequently.

Students, too, show remarkable interest in sustainable food. Seedlings are sprouting at the Garden Project at its new site on 185 Alexander St. New cross-discipline courses about food have been added each year, in departments ranging from the Wilson School to Spanish and Portuguese. Experts from Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini to Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser '81 have come to campus to speak.

New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Charles Kuperus will help us welcome farmers to campus today as Greening Princeton's Farmers' Market opens for its spring season. University Health Services will be there with nutrition information. Dining Services will host cooking demonstrations with free samples.

Yet a missing link prevents this food from touching every fork and spoon at Princeton. Food-related successes abound, but few people know about them. Harvard and Yale are sound models for such a holistic food system. The thriving Yale Sustainable Food Project is a fully integrated institution, visible from the first day of orientation through Yale's version of Outdoor Action, "Harvest," where incoming freshmen spend five days working on organic farms. The Harvard Food Literacy Program educates students about sustainable food and nutrition through projects such as its farmers' market and dining hall nutrition seminars. We need this cohesive approach.

As pre-frosh visit, they need to know what Princeton is doing on the healthful food front. The ‘Prince' called for "venues that will support [students] in making health-conscious dietary choices." We have those venues; we have dedicated students, faculty and staff; we just need the connection. Given the success of Yale and Harvard in institutionalizing university-wide sustainable food programs, it's time for Princeton to consider a similar approach.

A delicious revolution is quietly storming this campus.

Kathryn Andersen is the co-director of Greening Princeton's Farmer's Market. She can be reached at kda@princeton.edu.