PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE STEVENSON ORGANIC SALAD BAR BY LIZ FOX
			CDS Takes a Walk on the Organic Side By Nora Sohnen
			NOVEMBER 22, 2000--The continuing dedication of a group of environmental-studies students headed by Adriane Dellorco, a sophomore from Westlake, California, has made it possible for campus diners to use their meal-plan points and Flex dollars to buy organic foods from Campus Dining Services (CDS). Students initiated the project this past spring in response to a group assignment given in their Environmental Studies 101 class. Dellorco and the group are delighted to see their undertaking come to fruition. According to members and volunteers of the Oberlin Sustainable Agriculture Project (OSAP), the separate organic salad bar in Stevenson and organic fruit and vegetable section in the student-union De Café are important steps in raising community awareness about local produce. "Community awareness is critical for a number of reasons," says Brad Masi, OSAP project coordinator and environmental-studies-department staff member. "It is important to recognize the specific impacts our individual food choices have on the wider world, be it the high environmental cost of transporting food thousands of miles from the site of its production to the place of consumption, or the social cost of losing vast expanses of farmland to urban sprawl." The Oberlin community should also be aware of the regional issues involving the Black River watershed, says Masi. Agriculture, he says, is the number-one source of pollution in the Black River. The adoption of sustainable-agriculture practices will reduce soil erosion while improving the health of the river and its tributaries. OSAP's local organic farm, where many students and community members volunteer, was unable to sell its own produce to CDS this year because of a poor growing season. However, it has helped set a new standard for CDS, which is now buying organic produce from other Ohio farms as well as processed food from the Federation of Ohio River Co-operatives (FORC). FORC, a distributor, supplies most of the organic food for the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA). "Introducing organic food to CDS was far from simple," says Dellorco. "Although CDS administrators were open to the student initiative and involved in it, there were a lot of big problems to work out." For example, Marriott buys produce only from firms having $3 million in liability insurance. This practice keeps small farmers and firms from doing business with CDS. LoPresti Food Distributors, however, has agreed to act as an intermediary, buying from OSAP and selling to CDS. The agreement circumvents the issue of liability insurance and makes the contract possible. Why did the local distributor become involved? Dellorco's guess is that LoPresti’s "wants to keep Marriott happy and doesn't have anything against organic produce." If, as Masi says, "the act of changing your food choices allows you to make a powerful change in the world," Oberlin students now have at their disposal a simple, yet significant tool for action.
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