Veganism and the Environment

This program is designed to support students who aspire to become effective changemakers in response to global warming through the promotion of a plant-based diet. Food systems that center plants can meaningfully mitigate the climate crisis as well as biodiversity loss according to numerous studies. To better understand how our current environmental issues developed, our learning community will explore the historical roots of the American food system styled largely upon European agricultural traditions and a meat, egg, and dairy centric food culture. The impact of capitalism and scientific agriculture on American foodways will be considered. We will also consider the cultural appropriation of indigenous foods from the Americas from the tomato to quinoa. Students will hone their information discernment, quantitative reasoning, and communication skills to become more effective advocates for food systems change. And to judge from the numerous social movements that center the impact of our diet on global warming, change is possible. For example, student-led campaigns in Britain and elsewhere have resulted in institutions of higher learning committing to partial or wholesale conversion of on-campus catering to vegan or vegetarian fare.

Our learning community will also examine the connections between dietary changes and the rise of “affluence diseases” in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will explore various social movements catalyzed by the negative impacts of the industrial diet, also known as the SAD diet (the standard American diet) including efforts to increase indigenous food sovereignty and security. Through experiential learning in kitchen classrooms, students will develop an embodied understanding of how food nourishes communities when produced in environmentally sustainable as well as socially just ways. We will make and eat raw and cooked vegan whole food together while learning basic nutrition. Through food labs paired with academic readings, students will explore the vegan culinary arts including gourmet, nutrient-dense living foods. Consideration will be given to how student-run cafes can contribute to culture change. Lastly, our learning community will examine how working farms, on and off campus, can play key roles in cultivating deeper understanding of plant-based food systems.

This program incorporates Greener Foundations . Greener Foundations is Evergreen’s in-person 2-quarter introductory student success course, which provides all first-year students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive at Evergreen. First-year students who register for 14 credits in this program will be placed into Greener Foundations for an additional 2 credits, totaling 16 credits.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

5 - Introduction to Food Systems and the Environment 

5 - Food Studies: Cultural History

4 - Food Lab