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Let me paint a familiar picture for you: You settle into your seat in a big lecture hall, readying your laptop or notebook for another 90 minutes of mindless note taking. As your professor begins to speak, their voice is interrupted every five seconds by the constant rattle of coughs from around the room. Your professor then starts coughing and, next thing you know, you discover that the Walgreens on State Street is running low on cough drops and Dayquil.
Everyone knows about the freshman flu, frat flu and other inevitable annual campus illnesses. While everyone gets sick and feels unwell from time to time, the degree to which students on campus are susceptible to these ailments is concerning;why aren’t our immune systems and gut microbiome better equipped to defend our bodies? One crucial factor is the food we are eating.
People often take the food we consume for granted. I did, too, until I spent a summer as a volunteer farmworker on Potrero Nuevo Farm in Half Moon Bay, Calif., which grows and harvests organic produce for donation to local shelters. While I knew that donating fresh food to local shelters was a great form of charity, it was only through conversations with these workers — who, due to their financial instability, could only afford subpar processed food for themselves or their families — that I began to understand how much I took healthy produce for granted.
Several medical studies contend that food insecurity, or lack of access to healthy food, is correlated with poor health outcomes such as chronic diseases and micronutrient deficiency. At the same time, there is a growing consensus that organic produce is connected to reduced chronic disease risk, reduced pesticide-borne toxic metal exposure and increased micronutrients. These micronutrients play a huge role in bodily health, as a deficit can harm immune system function and lead to higher susceptibility to infection and malnutrition.
But, if the benefits of organic produce are so clear, why does it have such a minimal presence in MDining, which is the bedrock of nutrition for the thousands of students on a dining plan?
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, MDining marketing manager Kelly Guralewski relayed the sourcing philosophy of MDining and their approach to the organic versus inorganic produce question.
“The organic third-party certification is not currently a certification that (they) focus on,” Guralewski said. “Suppliers are selected and approved based on a variety of criteria, including sustainability, locality, ingredient pricing, ability to meet our volume and delivery needs, quality, et cetera.”
Notably, Guralewski suggested that many of the farms they source from may meet the prerequisites for organic produce but cannot afford the price of an official certification. She also expressed MDining’s commitment to Michigan-based suppliers.
“(MDining) currently purchase(s) a little more than 20% local and sustainable,” she said. “Eighty-eight percent of purchases are from Michigan-based companies, which helps support the Michigan economy.”
As of 2021, the state of Michigan hosts more than 117,000 acres of certified organic farmland, divided up into 572 individual farms — which MDining could be sourcing from, so certified organic sources are not in short supply nor are they monopolized. The National Resources Defense Council contends that organic farming reduces greenhouse gas emissions, improves soil carbon sequestration and increases crop resilience, all outcomes that boost sustainability.
It is therefore puzzling that, although an evident majority of MDining’s criteria are explicitly met by organic farming practices, they give it no particular weight in their sourcing process.
Perhaps this is a result of the ongoing scientific debate over whether organic produce does indeed provide benefits over nonorganic produce. Critics of organic produce point to studies showing negligible differences in the immediate nutrition of conventional and organic foods. This line of thinking misses the forest for the trees, as organic produce avoids the negative effects of pesticides, herbicides and hormones as the driving benefit, not internal nutritional efficiency.
MDining has done an admirable job in orienting its values toward efficiency and environmental sustainability. But by neglecting the distinction between organic and conventional produce both in sourcing and labeling, it is falling short of its own criteria, depriving students of the optimal standard of health and the information they need to make educated health choices.
This is especially pertinent to lower-income students. Ann Arbor is well stocked with Sweetgreen, Whole Foods and many other food stores that will provide organic nutrition for high prices. But for students from lower income backgrounds, these alternatives are not affordable, depriving them of the higher standard of health enjoyed by their wealthier peers.
On Aug. 26, thousands of freshmen shuffled into Crisler Center for our convocation ceremony. After several speeches and performances, University President Santa Ono stepped forward to close off the event. He spent his speech articulating the bright future he envisioned for the University as the premier public institution, spearheading the advancement of society and setting the standard for education worldwide.
The most sensible way of achieving this goal of global prominence is by embodying the roles of “leaders and the best” in the fight against food inequities. An initiative to supply our dining halls with organic produce and meat would establish the University as an institution dedicated to establishing universal access to premium health.
When our bodily needs are accounted for via the food we eat every day, our student body will have an energy and productivity advantage over all rival institutions. This investment would yield fewer sick days and a greater capacity to work (either on homework, clubs or sports), enabling Michigan students to achieve at a higher level than ever before.
I don’t want this message to be misconstrued as that of a condescending health nut — I have frequented the MoJo soft serve ice cream machine more often than I am willing to admit. But regardless of what food students seek out, that food should still avoid unnecessary pesticide and herbicide residues that can drastically worsen their health.
By supporting its students’ health and nutrition, the University of Michigan can empower its student body.
Hunter Ryerson is an Opinion Columnist writing about Environmental Justice and public health in his column “Learning Environment.” He can be reached at hryerson@umich.edu.
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