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January 29, 2009

Students attend all-day teach-in

Sustainability topic of second ‘Focus the Woods’

By Deb Kelly

TERRE HAUTE — What is the true cost of our food? How windy must it be to generate enough power using wind turbines? What is “biomass”?

These and many other questions were addressed Thursday at an all-day teach-in on the campus of St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, where presenters faced the issue of sustainability, from the perspectives of health, food, environment, economics and the arts.

The second “Focus the Woods” teach-in dealt with the topic of sustainability. In 2008, the topic was climate change, and the program coincided with the national “Focus the Nation” teach-in, that involved more than 1,000 participating colleges nationwide.

This year, the college decided to follow the same format, but choose its own topic, according to assistant biology professor Tammy Tintjer.

“We were not sure we wanted to stay so narrowly focused on climate change,” Tintjer said. “We decided to be a little more broad and go with sustainability.”

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, sustainability means “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The day began at 8:45 a.m. with a welcome from The Woods’ President David Behrs, and culminated with a panel discussion on how to make SMWC more sustainable.

Staff, students, faculty and community members attended various hour-long presentations throughout the day, on such topics as wind power; volunteering for Time Dollars; “green” careers; the impact of sustainability on health, health care and fitness; sustainable travel; sustainable diets; the true costs of food; manure management for sustainable pasturelands; worm composting; growing plastics; the economics of sustainability and more.

“The True Cost of Food,” a presentation given by Tintjer, focused on the problems of a food system that relies on monoculture and the importing of much of the food supply – methods that drive up costs to the environment, to the consumer and to the economy.

Tintjer played a cartoon from the Web site www.truecostoffood.org that highlighted the actual costs of bringing a factory-farmed steak, as well as other food items, to the table. She also introduced participants to a Web site that helps consumers calculate their “ecological footprint,” showing that the average lifestyle of most Americans would require the space and resources of 5.4 planet Earths. That Web site, www.footprintnetwork.org, allows users to give details about their consumption of certain types of food, energy and transportation to calculate their “footprint.”

Tintjer, also a co-organizer of the event, said, “I think it got people energized and excited thinking about ways they could change their lifestyles and make them more sustainable, as well as ways to work on the institution, and those were our goals.”

She added, “It’s exciting to see the whole campus come together, to pool our resources and our expertise, and to make our area of expertise touch on the broader area of sustainability.”

Deb Kelly can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.kelly@tribstar.com.

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