On March 21 Reconnect, Southeastern’s grassroots student environmental organization partnered with local farmers and cooperatives to host a farmers market in the Student Union Mall.  Students, faculty and staff were able to purchase locally grown vegetables and products from area farmers.  Although, the farmers market’s success was dampened by the inclement weather, the students of Reconnect still worked hard to inform students about The Real Food Challenge and to stress the importance of buying local food.

The Real Food Challenge is a cooperative effort of students all over the nation, including more than 340 colleges and universities who are working to shift $1 billion of current college food purchases to real food.  

According to Amy Edwards, the farmers market intern and a junior sociology major, real food is defined as “fair, humane, organic, local and sustainable.”

Darnella Winston with Indian Springs Farmers Association, a cooperative founded in 1979 representing eight counties from Petal, Miss., was selling vegetables such as collard greens.

Although most of the farmers, including Indian Springs, are not technically considered organic due to the strict regulations by the federal government, Edwards said that all of the farmers who come to the market on campus were organic growers by their own standards.

“The USDA has made the organic thing a huge hoop that farmers have to jump through,” said Edwards  “They are pandering to gigantic corporations and the amount of stuff that a farmer has to go through to be certified to be organic is ridiculous. It makes it impossible to make a small-scale farmer to be legitimized as organic.”

Edwards also stressed the importance of knowing what is in food.

“A lot of this food is genetically engineered material. The whole idea behind cancer is that it is abnormal cell formation,” said Edwards. “So, when you intake genetically modified food or food that has been fed genetically modified food, because all of the cattle industry is fed genetically modified corn, you are eating the corn, you are just eating the corn in the shape of a hamburger. You are what you eat, very literally.”

According to Edwards, Reconnect has been able to get local fresh fruits into Southeastern’s Cayman Café, however other efforts to incorporate locally grown produce into ARAMARK’s menu have been unsuccessful.  

“ARAMARK wanted the farmers to go through a distributer to get to them, to send it back to us,” said Edwards.

For students who want to adopt a more healthy diet, Edwards recommends eating less processed food.

“If you can’t pronounce a word on the box, maybe you shouldn’t put that word into your body,” said Edwards.

For more information on Reconnect join their group on Facebook by searching “SELU Reconnect,” or contact Bonnie May at [email protected].