Food sustainability eyed

The UC hopes to establish one of the most comprehensive sustainable food service policies of any university in the country. The Policy on Sustainable Practices applies to all 10 UC campuses, the five UC medical centers and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

According to a UC news release, the university’s efforts to green itself are a natural outgrowth of its teaching and public service mission.

Nathan Brostrom, UC’s interim executive vice president for business operations, said, “For a long time UC students learned about issues like resource scarcity and global warming inside the laboratory and classroom, but the university was doing business as if these problems didn’t exist. That sends a mixed signal.”

Now, Brostrom noted, “we’re practicing what we teach. By embracing sustainability and transforming our business practices, UC can have a positive environmental impact today and save the university money through increased efficiencies. In leading by example, UC can also influence generations of students who will tackle environmental problems in the years to come.”

The policy has been revised to require that:

• By 2020, at least 20 percent of all food purchased by UC must be designated as “sustainable,” as defined by the food service work group, based on third-party certifications for organic, locally grown and other measures.
• At least one dining facility per UC location must be certified as a green business, through a city or county certification program or through the Green Seal or Green Restaurant Association program.
• Each campus must provide students with educational materials explaining the issues related to sustainable food products and food service business practices.
• Campus departments, organizations, groups and individuals must engage in activities with the surrounding community in support of common sustainability goals.

UC revised and strengthened its sustainability policy at the request of students, 10,000 of whom sent postcards to the Board of Regents asking for more sustainable food options.

Under the policy, each UC campus has flexibility to set its own specific goals. They will be required to report on their progress annually. More information is available at universityofcalifornia.edu/news.

Biofuels research support

At least two-thirds of a billion dollars is currently being spent in UC laboratories systemwide to build better biofuels, a massive effort to help the state achieve its ambitious goal of a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020.

Hundreds of UC scientists are investigating how to improve the conversion of plant cellulose into ethanol, the conversion of oilseed into biodiesel, and the conversion of plant and animal waste into liquid, gas or solid energy. They are also engineering faster-growing, higher-yielding crops and algae for biofuel feedstock.

Read about these efforts in the current issue of the California Agriculture journal at californiaagriculture.ucanr.org.

First UC-wide online course

The UC has granted approval to its first systemwide course, Arabic Without Walls.

The student course is available now through the UC Irvine Web site at eee.uci.edu/09f/31701.

Created by UC Davis Spanish professor Bob Blake, it is a yearlong fully online course in beginning Arabic.

Blake said the course was developed through the UC Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching with a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of PostSecondary Education and in collaboration with the National Middle East Language Resource Center at Brigham Young University and the Near Eastern Studies Department at UC Berkeley.

UC has been working toward the goal of establishing systemwide courses for 10 years, Blake said. Changes to Senate Regulation 544 in 1999 gave UC students the right to receive credit for courses taken on UC campuses other than their own.

That step, Blake noted, laid the groundwork to make it easier for UC students across the system to obtain access to courses they need either to meet official requirements or to use in preparation for research in their chosen fields.

— Dateline staff