As a contributor for the Huffington Post, Hampshire College president Jonathan Lash blogs about a wide range of topics ranging from education to climate change, drawing from his experience as president of World Resources Institute (WRI), senior staff attorney of the Natural Resources Defense Council, and as a Peace Corps volunteer and trainer. President Lash has highlighted Hampshire’s Healthy Food Transition in a series of blog posts that consider how food and agriculture can and should be incorporated into an interdisciplinary education:
“Educating for change includes educating future generations of healthy, ethical food producers and consumers, the kind of independent thinkers and learners who can put ideas into action and help change the way we interact with food on a daily basis. Not all teaching takes place in a classroom. Campuses can enable students to explore issues of food health, sustainability, and justice by experimenting with new models of production and delivery that can help solve resource challenges, locally and globally.”
In his most recent post, President Lash has turned his focus on food justice, drawing connections between the health of the environment and the health of the people growing and eating the food in our communities.
“I simply do not buy the argument that we should eat unhealthy food, pollute our streams, and degrade our soils because there are costs involved in not doing so. It is a false choice, and doesn’t serve the poor, but rather protects the practices and profits of Big Ag.”
