© UC Santa Cruz
Maintained by mtbrown@ucsc.edu

UC System Establishes Sustainable Food System Policy

As a member of UC’s system-wide working group, Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) researcher Tim Galarneau played a major role in the development of the new UC system-wide policy. According to Galarneau, the policy is an outgrowth of work initiated at UC Santa Cruz to improve the campus food system’s sustainability and in response to system-wide student requests and mobilizations for a more just and sustainable food system across UC campuses.

Says Galarneau, “UCSC has been a model for this type of sustainable food sourcing and other green practices in its food services. UCSC’s Dining Services has already surpassed the UC wide goals and is in the final rounds of launching a bold three- year sustainable food action plan for the campus.”

The City of Santa Cruz recognizes all of UCSC’s dining halls and many of its other food service outlets as Green Businesses, and along with composting and other resource-conserving practices, Dining Services has initiated a “trayless dining” program that is saving over a million gallons of water each year and has reduced the food waste within dining by as much as 32%.

Galarneau also worked with both Kelsey Meagher and Hai Vo, who are mentioned in the press release about the new UC system-wide initiative. Both Meagher and Voi were in the pioneer class of Sustainable Agrifood Systems Fellows, a program that CASFS launched in 2009 to help bring sustainable food systems practices and education to universities and colleges throughout California.

2009 UC Policy on Sustainable Practices