The Facts: Kathleen Merrigan, the USDA deputy secretary, spoke at the University about her initiative “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” and congratulated the Center for Environmental Farming Systems for their 10% campaign. The University has agreed to devote 10 percent of its food budget to buying local food.
Our Opinion: Students should demand that University Dining and U.S. Food Service provides local food in the dining halls. Although the increased price for a meal plan is not desirable, the trade offs would be providing more support for the state’s agriculture industry and improve the healthiness of food on campus.
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Needing food is one thing every human being has in common. We must all eat in some way to survive. To be healthy, we cannot eat just anything, but we must select foods that provide the right balance of nutrients. Many students rely on meal plans, provided by University Dining for their food needs. U.S. Food Service purveys goods to University Dining, meaning ingredients for our food actually comes from a national distributor, unless otherwise noted. Students should demand, however, that the U.S. Food Service fill N.C. State’s orders with almost exclusively with North Carolina products.
Food has to travel between 1,500 and 2,500 miles to get to our dining hall, but it doesn’t have to. U.S. Food Service is there to help University Dining find what it needs from across the state. At certain points during the year, there is a possibility to pool produce from across N.C. to provide fresh, in-state produce. Traveling 300 miles is certainly better than 2,500.
As a land grant university, it is our mission to serve the state of North Carolina. Food purchasing, while not visible to most students, is a major factor in our state’s economy and the livelihood of our in-state farmers, many of which came to study here and now have their children studying here.
Total cash receipts for farms in N.C. in 2010 was $9.7 billion and North Carolinians sped $35 billion on food. By buying from farmers around the state, U.S. Food Service’s, and in essence our, dollar goes back to our local economy. This can help our state’s budget, which will in turn help the University’s budget.
North Carolina’s 10% campaign has already added another $1 million in pledges to the North Carolina economy since November and provides services to connect businesses to N.C. farmers. University Dining prepares 30,000 meals every day during the spring and fall semesters and serves almost year round. Taking 10 percent of those meals and averaging the ingredients across an entire year make the possibility to get the needed produce realizable, if the U.S. Food Service would take advantage of the N.C. market and organize its produce by originating.
There is one problem with using more local, fresh foods: the price of a meal plan will increase. However, UNC-Chapel Hill’s residential 8-meal week plan costs $1,050 a semester. The cheapest plan Duke University provides to first year students locks them into 12 meals a week with $320 in Duke’s equivalent of Board Bucks for $2,505. Compared to them, N.C. State students pay $180 and $1,095 less respectively. With this in mind, there is plenty of financial room to negotiate for more fresh food and still be more affordable than our rivals.
By demanding U.S. Food Service buy N.C. products we get to eat healthier, we know our food is from close by and we can sleep soundly knowing our University and our meal plans support the state economy. Basic economics will tell you consumer choice drives demand, therefore by choosing to buy a meal plan and eat on campus, we should be the ones who say where our food comes from.