Sustainability taught in the classroom

By Jamie Keyes

Different perspectives on sustainability were shared on Tuesday morning in the David G. Sant Engineering Innovation Building on Utah State University’s campus. Marlene Israelsen, a clinical assistant professor in the dietetics program, invited four diverse speakers to speak to her Science and Application of Human Nutrition class. Many students attended the class to listen to Denise Stewardson, Bob Ward, Kristi Spence and Jake Miller speak on their different perspectives of sustainability.

Denise Stewardson, the director of Utah Agriculture in the Classroom, talked about the farm to fork aspect.

“When you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, think about where it’s coming from,” Stewardson said. “On average, food travels 1,500 miles to get to our plate.”

Stewardson pointed out a wide variety of foods that are grown in the United States.

“On average, a farmer feeds about 154 people around the world,” Stewardson said. “They do that with a sustainable system.”

Bob Ward, an associate professor and director of food science in the Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences Department, explained what sustainability means to food companies.

“The food market is competitive and very responsive to consumer demands,” Ward said. “There is a lot of interested effort of making things sustainable because they know they can sell them to you.”

Ward also talked about how genetically modified organisms are a new way of becoming more sustainable.

“It is unlikely that adding one gene to a plant is going to make it toxic,” Ward said.

Kristi Spence, a registered dietitian, gave a health professional view on sustainability. She talked about community supported agriculture programs and how, as a dietitian, she should know the facts of agriculture sustainability.  

“The role of a health professional is to look at all the different perspectives,” Spence said. “Consumers should have a choice in the food they buy, and a health professional can help inform that choice.”

Jake Miller, a senior in the Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Science Department at USU, spoke about the producers' view.

“Agriculture is an industry and culture of people making their livelihood off of food products, animal products and fiber products,” Miller said. “The animal industry is working towards a good product to feed you.”

Megan Wagstaff, a freshman at USU who is going into the nursing program, attended the class and enjoyed the discussion and hopes to implement these lessons into her profession.  

“I think agriculture sustainability should be emphasized in nutrition and health careers because a lot of issues with patients have to do with food related problems," Wagstaff said.