November Events with the Dearborn Sustainability Coalition

On behalf of the Dearborn Sustainability Coalition and Student Environmental Association (SEA) at UM-Dearborn, thank you to all who presented or participated in the round table on earth, ethics, and religion!

Ian Tran and Sarai Richter greeting attendees of the Earth Ethics and Religion round table for sustainability.  Photo credit to Michelle Martinez.

Your attendance, insight, and the formative consensus that emerges from these events is an affirmation of our ability to make a difference in the world as engaged citizens.  The diversity of your perspectives and insight adds to the resilience of the greater Southeast Michigan community, and makes it a better place for all.  Approximately 40 people attended this round table, and we look forward to seeing all of you again.

Upcoming November events:

Nov. 15th,  4-5:30pm - Protecting our Health, Protecting the Clean Air Act at UM-Dearborn EIC

Nov 17th,  3:30-5pm -  Beans or Bypass Surgery?  A scientific discussion about food and well-being at HFCC
Nov. 17th,  7-9pm - Privatization of Public Services Roundtable - LWVDDH, Christ Episcopal Church

Nov. 22nd, 4:30-5:45 - Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone Pipeline Overview and Actions - UM-Dearborn

Below you'll find a brief recap of our October "Earth, Ethics, and Religion" round table, and more details of upcoming November events.

The Vegan Sub Sandwich Option

Do you like healthier, affordable, environmentally and ethically responsible food options?

If yes, then we're pleased to inform you that Dr. Skrbina's vegan sub sandwich proposal to the campus Subway as a viable way to make it happen sooner.  These arguments are applicable to campuses everywhere, but you may have to check the prices.  Our campus subway charges a bit more across the board than most other subways do.  Here's a bit from Dr. Skrbina:

At present there is only one way to buy a vegan sub: the Veggie Delight (all fresh vegetables), with vinegar and oil dressing. This sells for $5.29, the same price as if the customer included cheese, egg-product, and dairy
dressing. By comparison, the ham sub is $5.89—just $0.60 more. Subway’s (and Aramark’s) profit margin on such a ‘vegan sub’ is undoubtedly huge—surpassing every other product they sell, given that the ingredients are the lowest-cost. And given that a ‘$5 footlong’ is a viable product, and 3 for $12, we should expect a sub-$5
price on the vegan alternative.

In effect, buyers of a vegan sub are subsidizing the non-vegan and meat subs. Based on the above facts, it should be the other way around: vegan subs should be the cheapest, and the cost burden placed on the meat.

 Full paper below:

On climate change: A handful of resources and reflections

I've been relatively quiet about climate change activism for the past two years because there are so many moving parts involved with the issue, and it took time for me to get my head around what was going on.  Most everyone involved has good intentions, there are many perspectives, and understanding many of the solutions--not to mention knowing which ones are being considered or included can be a daunting task.  Furthermore, there are many groups working toward a similar goal, but I couldn't understand why they didn't work together.  I've finally seen, heard, and learned enough to offer some organizations seeking to coordinate efforts that you can take action with, and handful of quality resources for you to investigate as a supplement to the previous letter.

There are four sections below:

1. Courses+some comments on political efficacy
2. Cap and Trade in climate legislation and how it could improve
3. My take on Repower America
4. Climate change as an issue of sustainability

These draw from my experiences as a student, an attendee at many a conference, and various other ventures in the arena of climate change.  Clearly, it's my perspective, but I hope it serves to be a useful starting guide to you if you're about to dive in.

Climate Change: Our democracy, everyone's planet, a call to action

Green wolverines, wolves, and friends of the SEA:

Harry Reid recently announced that the climate bill will not be addressed this year.  The ethical implications and research beckons us to promptly take prudent action on climate change.

Embracing the issue as civil individuals and acting as a society is among humanity's greatest of challenges.  Respected peers at the Sierra Club and Repower America are looking for volunteers, and you can help unite the voices of Michigan's communities to bring and keep a good bill back onto the national agenda until it has become law.

As informed citizens, we can charge our representatives to hold the national legislation accountable to its people and the well being of our global community--biotic and abiotic.

Furthermore, we can also demand that the legislation includes appropriate solutions to meet the challenges of climate change.  We are the people, this is our democracy.  We are all members of the UM community, we are the leaders and the best.

Sincerely,
Ian D. Tran
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President, The Student Environmental Association at The University of Michigan-Dearborn
p.s.
I'd feel irresponsible if I urged you to action without providing some credible resources and thoughtful analysis, here's a link to a sustainability project called "The Story of Stuff" by a thoughtful and articulate activist named Annie Leonard.  She nicely communicates the cap and trade system and things we can do to strengthen the bill in a video, and the transcript has citations for her sources: http://storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/

You can view some of my thoughts and supplements here on the blog concerning some of the organizations listed above, metrics for political efficacy, and recommendations for useful classes offered at UM-Dearborn.

The Volunteer Schedule

Our food system: Aramark and the Imokalee FL issue

Finally catching up with the old posts!

The University sent out a food services survey under momentum of the Provost's Urban Farming Summit. Aramark is our Campus' contracted food service provider.

After almost a year of on and off searching, I finally found the news I've been looking for:
http://www.ciw-online.org/
What's this place have to do with Aramark?

Aramark's buying practices drives legal slave-like conditions for farmworkers in Imokalee Florida (where most of the tomatoes in America are grown).

[edit 14 Apr. 2010] Having read relatively recent news, the question now is whether Aramark's agreement to increase pay for tomato farmworkers is sufficient to put the issue at rest.

My response to the survey (was long...):