Food, the Environment and Justice

This year's theme for Earth Days at Salem State College was "Food, the Environment and Justice." It was a timely theme. Debates over the impacts of ethanol fuel production on food availability and habitat around the world, the threat of hunger from sky rocketing food prices, anxiety over genetically modified organisms, increasing concern over globalized food distribution networks with minimal accountability and maximum distance, have made food a prominent concern within environmental and political and energy and economic debates, to name only a few domains.

The Earth Day celebration is nearly four decades old now, and it has served as an opportunity to celebrate the importance of a healthy Earth. At SSC, Earth Day has also served as a unique opportunity to bring the academic community together around a common cause. On Monday, April 14, 2008, over 100 students displayed 80 posters on an incredible array of topics. Equally impressive, we had 32 faculty from 10 different disciplines acting as poster judges, as well as over 30 members on the non-campus community. For the second year in a row, Earth Days at SSC also featured a juried art exhibit - hence the killer tomato.

The next day Professor Jamie Wilson and I hosted a viewing of the documentary King Corn on Central Campus. Student attendance wasn't as good as we would have liked, BUT we had unexpected visitors. Becky Ellis, the aunt of Ian Cheney (co-producer and co-star of King Corn), came to the viewing with a friend. She lives in Marblehead. Very pleasant woman. We had a great discussion after the film. She suggested that we contact Ian because he lives in Boston. Excellent idea.