SSA Meeting - Minutes from 2.17.09

Hi All!

The SSA meeting went very well tonight. Thank you to our guest presenter, Kendra Johnson, an SSA alum who currently works with the California Farm Link. For more information about what amazing opportunities the California Farm Link has, please check out their website here.

Other items discussed included partnerships with a Davis High students, Maggie's experience at the California Student Sustainable Coalition's Strengthening the Roots convergence this past weekend, Local Food Week, SSA possibly getting office space, and much more.

To read the minutes from the meeting, please go here.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 3rd at 6:00pm in the Project Compost office in lower Freeborn Hall. We will be discussing the upcoming Local Food Week, further educational and activism opportunities, and having a guest from the Agricultural Sustainability Institute here at UC Davis.

If you have any agenda items, please forward them onto Victoria Lin at viclin@ucdavis.edu.

SSA in the California Aggie

Students for Sustainable Agriculture was represented in the California Aggie in the guest opinion article. A few students from SSA gathered collectively to submit an opinion piece endorsing the upcoming Green Initiative Fund (or TGIF for short). Maggie Lickter and other SSA members were key in formulating the piece that was emailed to the Aggie staff, and published in Tuesday, February 17th's paper.

To see a copy of the article, go to http://californiaaggie.org/ and look in the right column for download-able archives.

Guest Opinion: Is TGIF right for you?
Students for Sustainable Agriculture
The California Aggie
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009


Fundamental questions about our responsibilities as students are being raised by the vote on The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF). After considering some of the complex questions surrounding TGIF, the UC Davis club, Students for Sustainable Agriculture, has decided to formally endorse TGIF. This article will address some of the bigger questions that we see as relevant to the TGIF discourse.

Is it my responsibility to pay money to support a green campus?
As active students of the UCD student body, we expect our school to represent our values and best interests. We choose to take responsibility to put our money where our mouths are and contribute to a campus that strives or sustainability.

How much money should we pay?
Well, four dollars per quarter sounds reasonable to us. We’re all feeling the pinch during this economic crisis, but we can still come together and pay $4 for something that brings real potential for change to UC Davis.

Who’s going to make sure that money is used effectively? Wouldn’t it be a waste if our money ended up going down the drain?
Of course. However, after reading the proposed management guidelines for TGIF, we feel confident that TGIF’s creators have built a structure that will manage the money democratically and efficiently.

What about the fate of other projects that I care about on campus?
With increasing budget cuts, people feel forced to prioritize and fight to secure funding for their preferred projects. However, funding for campus positions, programs and projects is not a zero sum game. TGIF will not take away funding from any another existing programs.

That being said, our only critique of TGIF is that it should include more emphasis on campus social justice issues.

However, this is not ground for dismissing TGIF. In fact, what we see as a lack of attention to social justice can be addressed by proposing projects that address sustainability and justice simultaneously! TGIF has major implications for our school’s reputation and longevity during a time of major environmental problems. Installing solar panels or low flush toilets may not appear to be a top priority, but their implementation is an important step towards reducing our use of coal and water, two limited resources that are being rapidly depleted - and for four bucks, it’s worth it.

Who benefits from TGIF?
We all do. Ecological adversity affects everyone. World wide, environmental degradation disproportionately affects people of low socio-economic status, women, and children. Having such a wildly destructive ecological footprint is elitist and we have a global responsibility
to mitigate our effects. Let’s get real with ourselves - we are incredibly fortunate and privileged to have access to this University. Let’s make sure that we use that privilege wisely to benefit ourselves, our communities, and future generations.

Additionally, as UCD students we particularly benefit from the passage of this initiative. This fund is asking us to realize our own possibility. It funds student projects! Anyone can apply, anyone can create change! That means you!

Do I care?
That’s for you to decide. If apathy and self imposed ignorance haven’t yet killed our student body’s will to create the change they want to see in their world, then vote. That’s all, just vote. Vote yes or vote no, but make your voice heard this election on February 18-19th.

In conclusion, we think that with mutual cooperation, TGIF will become a force for sustainable and socially just change on campus. TGIF has the potential to communicate our agency. Students for Sustainable Agriculture supports TGIF and its creators in working to better the campus we all represent.

Feb 10th Meeting Notes

The first SSA meeting after the extremely successful Citrus Gleaning was last night! The meeting turnout was great, and we covered a lot of agenda items, including a brainstorm for making the citrus gleaning permanent!! Check out the meeting notes HERE!

Maggie Lickter speaks at National Sodexo Sustainability Conference

February 2-4, Sodexo, the multibilliondollar international food service management and facilities management corporation, hosted a sustainability conference here at UC Davis. The conference was the SEED Conference - Sustainability and Environmental Expert Development. The conference included a group of Sodexo managers and corporate leaders from across the nation.

Maggie Lickter, a second year majoring in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, represented Students for Sustainable Agriculture, the Real Food Challenge, the California Student Sustainability Coalition, and university students across the nation. The panel included a look into UC Davis' best practices when it comes to sustainability and environmental stewardship. Maggie's piece of the panel was educational and eye-opening for many of the members. Focusing on topics such as supporting local farms, social justice and labor issues, profit versus people, corporate transparency and more, Maggie did a great job telling Sodexo where it can make the biggest impact in affecting our food system.

Gail Feenstra, food analyst for the UC Davis Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, also spoke at the SEED conference about the Davis Farm-to-School connection.