What is your Campus Feeding You?
I encourage everyone to check out the article "Fire Your Food Service and Grow Your Own" by William R. Wootton. The article is insightful on the food environment on campus and offers a solution that is ecofriendly. It was originally published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education is Newspaper which is distributed weekly and has been active since 1966. According to Ulrich’s Periodical Directory, the newspaper provides news reports and editorials on all facets of higher education in the United States, Canada, and abroad. The intended audience for the newspaper are mostly educators, administrators, and researchers/scholars involved in higher education.
Wootton argues in his article that colleges should abandon their corporate food services, and instead develop a college operated food service and agriculture system. The author argues that food services are managed by outside corporations whose only mission is to make as much profit as possible. The corporations only concern is getting large quantities of food to their clients, which consists of many schools across the United States. These corporations are likely not getting their food from local or regional farmers. Wootton argues that universities should support local farmers by creating relationships with them. Not only should universities support local farmers, but Wootton argues that universities should also invest in an agriculture curriculum. By doing this, Wootton claims that colleges would become responsible for a better food environment, not only towards its students, but also towards the world.
The article shows an economic bias in a way that seems pro-agricultural and anti-establishment. The author demands the ditching of corporate food services while introducing the “better” alternative, local farming and agriculture programs. Not only are there economic biases, his argument shows social and political biases. Wootton stresses the need to know the source of the food and practice clean agriculture. This is common among people who would consider themselves liberal. Many faculty members involved in higher education would be considered liberal and therefore may gravitate towards his viewpoints.
The author uses a lot of emotional appeals throughout his article to persuade his audience to change the norm. He provides an example of how these corporations choose to portray themselves. He states “They show beautiful pictures of salads, fruits, and plated meals on their Web sites. They show gardens at harvest and chefs in white hats.” Later in the article he explains this is not at all how they practice, instead the food services are outside corporations which is only operating to make a profit. They use tactics which will provide them with the largest profit, most of which do not involve salads, fruits, and plated meals. Not only does he point out how they are protrayed, but he explains how food services service students.
"Meanwhile, higher education's weird fascination with buffet-style dining has resulted in a cornucopia of college eating, with multiple choices and side dishes presented at every meal. That creates a disproportionate amount of waste and is environmentally harmful, expensive, and simply ridiculous. No one eats like that except passengers on cruise ships, conventioneers, conferencegoers—and college kids."
This may appeal to his audience’s emotion, since the audience are administrators and educators who are involved in the campuses wellbeing. The administrators may not feel like they can trust the food service they have chosen and may feel the need to replace them. This is exactly what Wootton wants his audience to do, replace the corporations with agriculture programs.