Dominican University's Dining Services
- Dining Center's Sustainability Mission & PartnershipsWe feel that nutrition and sustainability are very interdependent concepts. Our philosophy for nutrition programs and sustainability efforts run along parallel paths. What is good for us is good for the planet; conversely, what is good for the planet is good for us.
- Food PhilosophyWe are passionate about food and we believe in wholesome, nutritious ingredients.
- Animal Welfare PolicyClick here to review Dominican's commitments to a humane meat and dairy menu.
Sustainability
Entry from The Gale Encyclopedia of Nutrition and Food Labels
In agriculture, sustainable means to support productive and useful farming systems for an indefinite period of time. This implies that sustainable agriculture must be reducing waste and conserving resources, having a positive impact on the environment and being supported socially. The purpose of sustainable agriculture is to provide enough food, preserve the environment and natural resources to sustain agricultural economy, improve the quality of life, and improve the use of resources. Author Wes Jackson first mentioned sustainable agriculture in his book New Roots for Agriculture in 1980. The term started to be used more widely in 1980s.
Several early movements shaped the presence of sustainable agriculture. The humus farming movement emphasized use of humus in the soil to maintain productivity and soil condition. Mochichi Okada established nature farming practices in Japan after World War II, which used techniques of humus farming. In 1979, the Rodale Institute released the Rodale Guide to Composting, which was used widely by humus farmers and gardeners. The biodynamic movement took place in Europe after Rudolph Steiner published Agriculture Lectures in 1924, in which he discussed his holistic vision of agriculture.
Legislation and regulation
Sustainable agriculture is part of the U.S. Farm Bill of 1990. According to this law, “the term sustainable agriculture means an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will, over the long term:
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satisfy human food and fiber needs
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enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends
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make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and on-farm resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls
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sustain the economic viability of farm operations
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enhance the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.”
In 1996, the U.S. secretary of agriculture, Daniel Glickman, developed a Memorandum on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sustainable agriculture policy. The document mentioned that the USDA was working toward social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture and would be incorporating these goals into its policies and procedures.
The sustainable agriculture movement in Canada began in the early 1950s, with the Canadian Organic Soil Association, which was later renamed the Land Fellowship. Many more sustainable agriculture organizations were established due to concern for the environment in the 1970s. In the 1980s, Canadian organizations experienced increases in funding and influence over public policy with the number of organizations and activities in sustainable agriculture rising.
Videos
The average farmer in America makes less than 15 cents of every dollar on a product that you purchase at a store. They feed our communities, but farmers often cannot afford the very foods they grow. In this actionable talk, social entrepreneur Mohammad Modarres shows how to put your purchasing power into action to save local agriculture from collapse and transform the food industry from the bottom up.
Our food systems have not been designed to adapt to major disruptions like climate change, says environmental journalist Amanda Little. In this eye-opening talk, she shows how the climate crisis could devastate our food supply -- and introduces us to the farmers, entrepreneurs and engineers who are radically rethinking what we grow and how we eat, combining traditional agriculture with state-of-the-art technology to create a robust, resilient and sustainable food future.
Rising carbon levels in the atmosphere can make plants grow faster, but there's another hidden consequence: they rob plants of the nutrients and vitamins we need to survive. In a talk about global food security, epidemiologist Kristie Ebi explores the potentially massive health consequences of this growing nutrition crisis -- and explores the steps we can take to ensure all people have access to safe, healthy food.
The path to better food is paved with data, says entrepreneur Erin Baumgartner. Drawing from her experience running a farm-to-table business, she outlines her plan to help create a healthier, zero-waste food system that values the quality and taste of small, local farm harvests over factory-farmed produce.
Books & eBooks
Economics of Feeding the Hungry by Call Number: HD9000.5 .R824 2018ISBN: 0415538580Publication Date: 2017-10-03As productivity expands to cater for population increase and shifting diets, many individuals remain hungry, whilst others suffer obesity, and significant amounts of food are wasted. Yet, this triple dilemma oversimplifies the underlying complexity. This book explores this complexity from an economics perspective, looking at the processes involved and the institutional structures that direct and constrain their interaction. After discussing alternative approaches to measuring hunger and food insecurity, this volume considers the four dimensions of food security: availability, affordability, utilization and stability. In summarising the main debates, issues and policy interventions, Russell discusses the problems of ensuring sufficient food in the face of ever-slowing growth in productivity and constraints on land and water. The problems of food affordability, the need for safety nets, and the need for poverty alleviation measures that reach excluded and disadvantaged groups is also discussed. This is alongside an exploration of issues related to food utilization and the problems of hidden hunger, obesity, food waste, and the interventions needed to relieve these problems. This volume is of great interest to those who study rural development, ecological economics and development economics, as well as policy makers who seek a better understanding of underlying processes, ongoing and emerging issues, and potentially relevant interventions.
Fair Food by Call Number: HD9005 .H47 2011ISBN: 1610390067Publication Date: 2011-05-31A host of books and films in recent years have documented the dangers of our current food system, from chemical runoff to soaring rates of diet-related illness to inhumane treatment of workers and animals. But advice on what to do about it largely begins and ends with the admonition to "eat local or "eat organic." "Fair Food" is an enlightening and inspiring guide to changing not only what we eat, but how food is grown, packaged, delivered, marketed, and sold. Oran B. Hesterman shows how our system's dysfunctions are unintended consequences of our emphasis on efficiency, centralization, higher yields, profit, and convenience--and defines the new principles, as well as the concrete steps, necessary to restructuring it. Along the way, he introduces people and organizations across the country who are already doing this work in a number of creative ways, from bringing fresh food to inner cities to fighting for farm workers' rights to putting cows back on the pastures where they belong. He provides a wealth of practical information for readers who want to get more involved.
Foodopoly by Call Number: HD9005 .H358 2014ISBN: 9781595589781Publication Date: 2014-03-04Wenonah Hauter runs an organic family farm in Northern Virginia that provides healthy vegetables to over five hundred families. Despite this, as one of the nation's leading healthy food advocates, Hauter believes that the local food movement is not enough to solve America's food crisis and the public health debacle it has created. In "Foodopoly", she takes aim at the real culprit: the massive consolidation and corporate control of food production, which prevents farmers from raising healthy crops and limits the choices that people can make in the grocery store.
Enhancing Security, Sustainability and Resilience in Energy, Food & Water by ISBN: 3039282301Publication Date: 2020This book looks at the ways that energy, food, and water help to create connections between sustainability and security. The concept of security is in our current societies increasingly connected with sustainability, which seeks to ensure that we as humans are able to live and prosper on this planet now and in the future. The concepts of energy security, food security, and water security—used separately or together—manifest the burgeoning linkages between security and sustainability. This book brings together ten scientific articles that look at different aspects of security, sustainability, and resilience with an emphasis on energy, food, and/or water in the context of Finland and Europe. Together, the articles portray a rich picture on the diverse linkages between both energy, food, and water, and between security and sustainability. In sum, the articles and related preface conclude that ensuring sustainable security—or secure sustainability—requires systemic, structured processes that link the policies and actors in these two important but still distant fields.
Sustainable Diets, Food, and Nutrition by ISBN: 030947955XPublication Date: 2019-05-11On August 1 and 2, 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a public workshop in Washington, DC, on sustainable diets, food, and nutrition. Workshop participants reviewed current and emerging knowledge on the concept of sustainable diets within the field of food and nutrition; explored sustainable diets and relevant impacts for cross-sector partnerships, policy, and research; and discussed how sustainable diets influence dietary patterns, the food system, and population and public health. This publication briefly summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
Food Security and Climate Change by ISBN: 1119180651Publication Date: 2018-12-14This book looks at the current state of food security and climate change, discusses the issues that are affecting them, and the actions required to ensure there will be enough food for the future. By casting a much wider net than most previously published books--to include select novel approaches, techniques, genes from crop diverse genetic resources or relatives--it shows how agriculture may still be able to triumph over the very real threat of climate change. "Food Security and Climate Change" integrates various challenges posed by changing climate, increasing population, sustainability in crop productivity, demand for food grains to sustain food security, and the anticipated future need for nutritious quality foods. It looks at individual factors resulting from climate change, including rising carbon emission levels, increasing temperature, disruptions in rainfall patterns, drought, and their combined impact on planting environments, crop adaptation, production, and management. The role of plant genetic resources, breeding technologies of crops, biotechnologies, and integrated farm management and agronomic good practices are included, and demonstrate the significance of food grain production in achieving food security during climate change. "Food Security and Climate Change" is an excellent book for researchers, scientists, students, and policy makers involved in agricultural science and technology, as well as those concerned with the effects of climate change on our environment and the food industry.
Sustainability Challenges in the Agrofood Sector by ISBN: 9781119072768Publication Date: 2017-04-24"Sustainability Challenges in the Agrofood Sector" covers a wide range of agrofood-related concerns, including urban and rural agriculture and livelihoods, water-energy management, food and environmental policies, diet and human health. Significant and relevant research topics highlighting the most recent updates will be covered, with contributions from leading experts currently based in academia, government bodies and NGOs (see list of contributors below). Chapters will address the realities of sustainable agrofood, the issues and challenges at stake, and will propose and discuss novel approaches to these issues. This book will be the most up-to-date and complete work yet published on the topic, with new and hot topics covered as well as the core aspects and challenges of agrofood sustainability.
Environmental Resilience and Food Law by ISBN: 9780429443350Publication Date: 2019-08-13Agrobiodiversity and agroecology go hand-in-hand in promoting environmental resilience in international food systems as well as climate change resilient food policy. This book contextualizes how various legal frameworks address agrobiodiversity and agroecology around the globe and makes it accessible for audiences of students, practitioners, educators, and scholars. Some chapters focus on the legal regulation of agroecology from a food law perspective. Others are geared toward providing regulators, lawmakers and attorneys with the scientific and policy background of those concepts, so that they are equipped in the field of food law in everyday practice and policy. Climate change dimensions of the issues are woven throughout the book.
Political Agroecology by ISBN: 1138369225Publication Date: 2019-09-11"Political Agroecology" is the first book to offer a systematic and articulated reflection on "Political Agroecology" from the Agroecological perspective. It defines the disciplinary field responsible for designing and producing actions, institutions and regulations aimed at achieving agrarian sustainability. In short, it aims to build a political theory that makes the scaling-up of agroecological experiences possible, turning them into the foundation of a new and alternative food regime. The book proposes theoretical, practical and epistemological foundations of a new theoretical and practical field of work for agroecologists: "Political Agroecology". It establishes a framework for a common agroecological strategy, covering the different levels of collective action and the different instruments with which it can be developed. This will be essential reading for agroecologists, environmentalists, farming and food communities, and an ideal textbook for advanced agroecology courses in universities.
Sustainable Food System Assessment by ISBN: 9781138341951Publication Date: 2019-12-12"Sustainable Food System Assessment" provides both practical and theoretical insights about the growing interest in and response to measuring food system sustainability. Bringing together research from the Global North and South, this book shares lessons learned, explores intended and actual project outcomes, and highlights points of conceptual and methodological convergence. Interest in assessing food system sustainability is growing, as evidenced by the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and the importance food systems initiatives have taken in serving as a lever for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This book opens by looking at the conceptual considerations of food systems indicators, including the place-based dimensions of food systems indicators and how measurements are implicated in sense-making and visioning processes.
