If you want to learn more about why food is at the root of our society’s most complex problems, I highly recommend the following:
1. Read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”
2. Watch the documentary “Food, Inc.”
3. Take a class like “Culture and the Environment” that is offered here at Wash. U.

What I want to share with you, however, are not the problems, but the solutions. These solutions are happening right here at Wash. U. on a grassroots and corporate collaborative level—and that’s radical.
The two major players in this conscious food movement are The Burning Kumquat student-run organic farm and Bon Appetit, the on-campus dining service.

The Burning Kumquat was founded two years ago by a group of students who had burning questions about where our food comes from: If organic food is not the norm, then what is non-organic food? What is it doing to our bodies?

The Burning Kumquat inspires students to find answers from the ground up—literally. We secured a plot of land on Wallace Drive on the South 40 and sowed our first seeds in the spring of 2008. The Kumquat community has flourished ever since, maintaining a solid group of self-motivated students to work the land and sell the produce each semester.

Then there’s Bon Appetit, a nationally renowned food catering service which indeed cooks some of the most top-notch, delicious college campus food. As large a company as they are, Bon Appetit is dedicated to transitioning Wash. U. and all of their over 400 college and corporate locations into a sustainable food future.

It is easy for a company to make a marketing hullabaloo about reusing a cup or flushing a toilet less, but Bon Appetit has directly backed their word through collaboration with the Burning Kumquat student farm this summer, and I am humbled to share my direct experience in this collaboration.

This summer, the Burning Kumquat ran a free-of-charge urban farm camp for St. Louis youth to learn about growing organic food and reconnecting with nature. We proposed our idea for “Camp Kumquat” to Bon Appetit last semester and explained that we had no money to feed our campers, and they enthusiastically agreed to provide us with free food because they understood our intention to share the importance of healthy living with the larger St. Louis community.

Bon Appetit donated fresh snacks and healthy lunch buffets every day for seven weeks. The chefs even came in to talk to our campers about eating local, growing organic, and becoming aware of the way meat is produced in America. One chef in particular, Justin Keimon, talked to our campers about antibiotics and hormones that are fed to cattle at many factory farms in the United States.  “Because of this,” he explained, “Bon Appetit buys local, organic, and grass-fed meat as often as we possibly can.”

In terms of food awareness, Bon Appetit went above and beyond the norms of any corporate food company I have ever encountered. The company offers to pay local growers up front to ensure that the farmers are fairly compensated and that Bon Appetit will have local produce to use in its dishes. The executive office at Bon Appetit boycotted Florida tomatoes because of unjust worker’s rights. I was fortunate enough to read an email from the Vice President of Bon Appetit in which she told all Bon Appetit sectors to buy local tomatoes from farmers with fair labor practices.

The Burning Kumquat will be selling other produce to Bon Appetit this semester, so look out for some homegrown basil on your next pizza.

I am humbled by the partnership that has formed between the Burning Kumquat and Bon Appetit, and I encourage everyone to investigate the true story behind our food systems in America for themselves.  There is an amazing conscious food collaboration sprouting right here at Wash. U.