| Organic Food Now Available in CDS |
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For Immediate Release An organic salad bar in Stevenson and organic produce in the De Cafe is now offered in CDS through the insistence of a group of students (including myself) who worked to get local organic foods in CDS last semester. The Oberlin Sustainable Agriculture Project (OSAP), a local organic farm on which many students volunteer, was going to be able to sell to CDS this year, but was unable to simply because they had a poor season and didn't have enough to sell. Marriott and CDS require $3 million liability insurance from all the
firms it purchases from, thus barring any small farmers or firms from
selling to them because the insurance requirements are so high. Thus,
it is very monumentous that OSAP had the opportunity to sell to CDS this
year, and that though there is not local organic produce in CDS right
now, at least it is organic. CDS has also just starting purchasing from
the Federation of Ohio River Co-operatives (FORC), a distributor that
the co-ops purchase much of their organic processed food from. I led the group of students to get local organic food in CDS and helped to create a huge notebook of research and information on the subject for a group project last semester. The notebook contains research regarding the importance of local organic foods, the history of student effort to get local organic foods in CDS, the barriers that we and others have faced, interviews with local farmers, and proposals |