Real Foods Challenge

Today in Contemporary Food Movements we had two guest speakers to talk to us about the Real Foods Challenge. Two girls who work for the movement are on a road trip across the midwest to talk to college students about how to change the system of large corporations supplying food to college campuses and having "real food" instead. How they define real food is

Local and community based
Ecologically sound (beyond just organic)
Fair in terms of workers rights
Humane in terms of animal treatment


Beyond just college campuses this group is out to re-vamp the corrupt food system that many if not all of us take part in everyday from having no contact with unfairly treated farmers to consuming meat from factory farms that destroy the environment. A big focus with them is EDUCATION about nutrition, where your food comes from and how to gain accessibility to local, nutritious food.

They told us ideally a food system would supply "food that truly nourishes producers, community, consumers and the earth".

We discussed how all four of these aspects tie into the current food movement and system and how they relate to each other.

I believe that the challenge that must be addressed first is the education of the consumer. If people gain an awareness of what they are eating nutritionally, where it comes from, why it's important form a good relationship with food that they can put enough demand on the producers  to get the ball rolling for real change. These changes will inevitably help communities by supporting local farms and businesses and the environment by not supporting such large corporations that contribute so much to pollution.

What is your opinion on any aspect the current state of our food system?
What do you do to try and change it? 
Any thoughts on food education, the earth, corrupt corporations? 

My eats today may not have been "real" by this definition but they were real food and real tasty!

For lunch I 1/2 packed and 1/2 got from school

Hummus sandwich on wheatberry bread with spinach, onion, tomatoes, pickles and jalepenos. Reduced sodium parmesan tomato soup

Sandwich insides

So happy about this! Not one but BOTH pieces of bread were the ends! It's my favorite part and I always make sure to ask for it otherwise my school... THROWS IT AWAY! How disgusting is that?!?!

I ate lunch at work while doing some last minute bio studying, my test went well! I felt like I actually knew everything, we shall see!

When I got back from class I wanted a snack was in need of a plate o' carbohydrates!

Quaker oat squares cereal, honey wheat pretzel twists , dried chopped figs (love dried fruit today) and pear slices 

Hope everyone is excited for the weekend! With all that said....

I like my outfit today =)

Peace!

Caitlin