Princeton University, NJ Sustainable Dining

Type: Policy

Status: Ongoing

Source File: http://www.princeton.edu/facilities/dining_services/environment_community/#Natural%20Food

Description:

Natural & Organic Food
Conventional methods of farming have significantly increased food yields in the last fifty years, but are often associated with a host of environmental problems. Today’s organic farming methods allow us to avoid many environmental damages without crippling per acre yields. Benefits include reducing runoff of pollution into waterways, limiting pesticide contamination of crops and the environment, and preventing excess erosion. Moreover, chemical residues on non-organic foods may harm human health. Many herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides are potentially carcinogenic according to the EPA, and residues left on food often exceed federal limits. Dining Services has sought to limit the effects of agriculture on student health and the environment by seeking to purchase greater amounts of organic food.

What is organic on campus this year?

• Eden Foods, Inc Small Vegetable Shells - Healthy Eating Lab Salad
• Wheat Berries
• Light Life Tofu Pups
• Eden Foods, Inc. Soy Milk
• Quinoa
• Imagination rice milk (Rice Dream)
• Earthbound Farms® Mixed Baby Greens
• Wheat Flakes Cereal and Granola in the residential dining halls
• Tofu
• Stonyfield Yogurt (Frist only)
• Eden Foods, Inc single serve applesauce at Frist
• Eden Foods, Inc tamari roasted almonds at the C-Store
• Roasted Pumpkin Seeds at the C-Store
• Odwalla Orange Juice at Chancellor Green
• Moosewood Soups at Chancellor Green
• Organic Fair Trade Coffee in the residential dining halls
• Fair Trade Organic Sumatran and Organic Love Blend small world roasters coffee in the retail operations
• Chai at Cafe Vivian
• Snyder's Oat Bran Stick pretzel at the C-Store
• Multigrain Bread
• Cage Free Shell Eggs
• Guayakí's Organic, Rainforest-Grown, Fairly Traded Yerba Mate in the C-Store (certified by the Fair Trade Federation)
• Cage Free Liquid Eggs at Sunday brunch in residential dining halls

Accomplishments:

• Students have two permanent organic cereal options in all of the five dining halls on campus. In the 2002-2003 school year Princeton purchased and consumed over 760 pounds of organic cereal. In the 2005-2006 year Princeton purchased over 8,000 pounds of organic cereal and granola.
• All spring salad mix is organic and is offered on the salad bars everyday.
• Limited volumes of organic produce have been introduced according to season and availability.
• Organic pasta and sauce are served at the Food Gallery and the residential dining halls in honor of Earth Day.
• Dining Services does not serve milk containing supplemental bovine somatotropin (bST) or Posilac. The health effects of this hormone additive are uncertain, so it is in the students best interests that we buy milk that does not contain it. Dining Services is also investigating organic milk.
• Dining Services strives to purchase food with the lowest amount of trans fats possible. We contact our vendors about trans fats in their products and encourage them to reduce trans fats wherever possible. Our Bake Shop produces baked goods without using products that contain artificial trans fats. We fry solely in trans fat free oil in all residential and retail locations.
• 6000 cups of coffee were sold campus-wide in reusable mugs