Unjust, Unsustainable, Unhealthy, but not Unfixable: The Multidimensional Disconnect Between People and their Food that Enables the Exploitation of People and the Natural Environment

Abstract

My Senior Individualized Project (SIP) addresses the topics food sustainability and food justice. More specifically, it is about how the monopolized industrial food industry which has created a disconnect between people and their food that is unhealthy, unjust, and unsustainable, which enables the continued exploitation of people and the natural environment. My SIP also discusses the Student Farm Movement in North America and the ways in which this movement intersect with the greater food economy. Furthermore my SIP discusses the role that institutions of higher education, specifically liberal arts colleges, can and should play due to their unique disposition to address a multidimensional problem, such as food sustainability, through an interdisciplinary educational approach. Lastly, I bring attention to Kalamazoo College as a liberal arts college and highlight past, present, and potential new directions for working together to address issues of food sustainability and food justice.