Lewis & Clark Student Tackles The Politics of Food

I'm studying environmental studies, and with a specific interest, or focus, in food issues. I'm also involved in the campus gardens, and I'm involved with the Real Food Challenge, which is a national student organization committed to educating students, and empowering students, and trying to get more of the four billion dollars colleges around the country spend on food each year directed toward food that is sustainable. The most significant thing that I think the student-run campus gardens have done to promote a better attitude toward food and about food on our campus is to connect eating with growing. One of the most important lessons that I have learned is that growing food is a lot of work. It's hard to make things grow in February, especially, you know, bright red, *** tomatoes. And I've gained an enormous appreciation for broccoli and kale and spinach, and broccoli greens, actually. Things that I am most passionate about are issues of labor justice in the food system, and the rights of farm workers, the rights of producers relative to consumers. One of the most eye-opening experiences that I've ever had was visiting a migrant labor camp with 100 men living in a barn about 20 miles from my house. There's not a widely used fair-trade label for things that are produced domestically, and there needs to be one, because there is a huge variation in the kinds of conditions that can exist in agricultural fields in the United States that are not necessarily significantly better than conditions that you would find in the third world. The consumer labels, be they Certified Organic, Certified Fair Trade, or Rainforest Alliance, Utz Kapeh or what have you, are an imperfect solution to a very complicated problem. Part of the reason that things like organic and fair-trade coffee are more expensive at the grocery store is because they do legitimately cost more to produce. So the question is, How do you support a method of production that is genuinely better, and account for the fact that it will cost more money, without reinforcing the idea that "fair," the coffee that's "fair," belongs in a niche market, that it belongs anywhere other than on every single shelf?