Blog Archive // University of St Andrews

The Future of Food at St Andrews University

Fife is now recognised as a leading light in the UK’s local food revolution as demand soars for seasonal, fresh food, made and sold on our doorstep. For large organisations like the University of St Andrews, reconnecting with local food networks poses benefits as well as challenges.

To better understand this phenomenon, the St Andrews Sustainability Institute (SASI) is hosting a lunchtime seminar on Wednesday 20th February at the Gateway Building (LR 3) addressing the ‘Future of Food’ at the University of St Andrews.

While individuals are making positive food choices, larger organisations can find it difficult to make the switch; this seminar aims to explore the benefits of local food and how it might come to play a much larger role in feeding the University of St Andrews. Featuring two excellent and experienced “local food” experts, Mike Small and Robin Gourlay, attendees will be able to hear first-hand how changing our diet can lead to benefits for our local economy, the environment, health and culture.

  • Mike Small is an activist, writer and publisher originally from Aberdeen. He has led on the Fife Diet local eating experiment, which aims to re-localise food production and distribution on a regional basis as a response to globalisation and climate change.
  • Robin Gourlay is responsible for driving forward the Scottish Government’s National Food and Drinks Policy, for the public sector and was instrumental in making School in East Ayrshire buy more local food. Robin has wide experience in catering and facilities management in both public and private sectors through a career which spans, hotels, Universities, Further Education, Colleges and Local Government.

Our chair will be Dr Shona Russell, Lecturer in Knowledge and Practice within St Andrews University School of Management

With a welcome and introduction from Professor Louise Richardson, Principal and Vice Chancellor the university, this seminar really will pose food for thought on an issue that is close to our hearts – and mouths!

This free seminar is open to all and especially those who have a professional interest in local food.

Wednesday 20th February from  1pm to 2pm (Coffee from 12.30pm)

Lecture Room 3.

The Gateway Building, North Haugh, St Andrews University, St Andrews

 

This event is sponsored by the St Andrews Sustainability Institute  -  a group of people at the University of St Andrews who are working towards a sustainable future for everyone.
Poster with full details here.

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4 Seasons in One Day

Hopefully you noticed that last weekend the clocks went back, which may have meant an extra hour in bed, but also sadly marks the start of proper winter. Some of our international students might be forgiven for thinking that winter started months ago; the summer of 2012 was remarkably brief, even for Scotland.

Back in June, I had higher expectations for sunny weather and invited visitors to the Food for Thought 600th Anniversary Fair to enter our ‘Tallest Sunflower Competition’. I cannot say that we were inundated with entries.  My own attempt to grow a giant bloom was thwarted by some haphazard builders who, ironically, were installing solar panels on the roof of my building. I can laugh about its now… just.

I had almost given up hope of seeing any Transition sunflowers when a fortnight ago, Barbara from the Management School sent me the most spectacular pictures of her sunflower bathed in glorious Fife sunshine (yes, it does exist!). Not only does Barbara appear to have some of the greenest fingers in Fife, she also takes a stonking photo, some of which can be seen below.

Spectacular Sunflower (Photo B. Lessels)

 

Barbara's Beautiful Sunflower and friends

I was so pleased with Barbara’s triumph because it appeared her sunflower was the sole survivor of the Scottish summer. However, later that week, I went to visit my parents and my Dad called me out into the garden where, hidden behind the blackcurrants in a wee patch of mud, was the second (undoubtedly less glamorous) Transition sunflower (as exhibited in the undoubtedly less professional photo below).

He's a bit surly but he's got a good head of hair.

This got me pondering how on earth two sunflowers had survived October in Scotland: surely they thrived in sunny summer temperatures? Of course, I immediately turned to Google.  It turns out that sunflowers require only daylight, fertile soil and water; 3 ingredients we have in abundance in Scotland. They are remarkably hardy plants and can survive baking heat and chillier climates (although apparently not solar panel engineers).

Next year I have decided I am going to participate in some Guerrilla Sunflowering and plant lots. Not only will they provide a visual feast in October 2013 but they will also help fill my larder for a winter of tasty (and nutritious) snacks.  According to the internet, sunflower seeds have a low GI, are a good form of magnesium, protein and b-vitamins and have cholesterol lowering properties.

At the Food for Thought Fair I provided Homemade Energy Bars and Spicy Sunflower-seed Snacks, the recipes for which can be found in our usual spot (or by clicking here). If you were successful enough to grow your own sunflower, you can dry the head and retrieve home-grown seeds for your Spicy Sunflower Snacks.  Alternatively, as this week was Hallowe’en, why not adapt the recipe to use pumpkin seeds, providing a seasonal and tasty way to reduce food waste (more recipes on how to use your Hallowe’en lantern can be found here).

Nutella-jar-spring-onion-farm

Speaking of waste, my other top tip from the summer is the realisation that spring onions grow fantastically when placed in a glass of water on a windowsill. Ok, I’ll confess this ‘tip’ is a blatant attempt to shoehorn the final season into this blog-posting, but it does work, as the picture of our ‘Nutella-jar-spring-onion-farm’ attest. Just because its November and freezing outside, doesn’t mean you have to stop growing your own food.

Happy Hallowe’en!

 

 

 

 

 

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Contemplating carbon: a step on the Transition journey

It’s been 3months since I stumbled into the Transition Office, 65 North Street to pick up the Carbon Conversations handbook, the tome of knowledge to use to ‘go forth and save carbon’[1]. Since then I’ve reduced energy use, replaced light bulbs, swapped the car for the bus, and started growing my own food. These are tentative steps on a journey of transition sparked by Carbon Conversations.

In early February 14 others and myself began our respective, and collective, journey in a wee room tucked away in the Bute Building. Over the course of 5 sessions we, with the help of great facilitators, explored issues of low carbon futures, energy, transport, food, and consumption. Games, activities, YouTube clips, readings and personal experience ignited many conversations that intertwined issues of climate change, emissions reductions and sustainability. A rich tapestry of understandings and possible actions emerged as each of us shared personal experiences and facts.

Carbon Conversations is a space and process to connect with students of different years and between staff and students to consider how to engage with a complex problem. While carbon conversations is about how to reduce emissions, it’s just one part of the wider Transition Project spanning

  • how to grow, buy and cook food (veg bags from Bellfield and joining the community garden);
  • how to reduce energy use (Inter-Hall Energy Competitions)
  • how to reduce emissions through transport choices (goCar Share and second-hand bike sale),
  • how to learn new skills, and
  • how to make communities and networks

And so now as one round of funding winds up and another starts anew, the Transition Project embarks on a new phase with the award of 3-years of funding from the Climate Change Fund. New projects are being created (Local Exchange Trading Scheme and more community gardens) and others continue (Carbon Conversations). Aligned to the goal to reduce emissions are to learn new skills, connect with others, and continue enquiries into how to engage in complex problems bringing together theory and practice contributing to knowledge within the academy, the town and gown community and beyond.

As we found in the little room in the Bute Building, there are many ways to take action whether that’s in gardens and kitchens and on buses and bikes. These actions might occur in St Andrews and elsewhere as we each connecting past experiences with future possibilities – to reduce emissions and grow the Transition St Andrews community. In doing so, we might find issues and problems but remember that ‘it might be hard but there’s sunshine on the other side’[2].


[1] Thanks to Carol-Ann Cunningham for permission to use this quote.

[2] Thanks to Victoria Olayiwola for permission to use this quote.

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Categories: Carbon Conversations, Reflection, Transition movement, Transition University of St Andrews, Uncategorized, University of St Andrews, Waste • No Comments »

Transition Gets Funded! (Redux)

Yesterday the Scottish Government announced that Transition, in partnership with St AndEn, had been funded for a new bid to the Climate Challenge Fund! It’s a three year project that we are all very excited to get started on — but first a bit of recollection from Transition’s current and future coordinators: Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs and Joshua Miska respectively. Check out more information from the Scottish Government’s announcement at: Climate Change Fund Announcement

Katherine Ellsworth-Krebs:

It is absolutely amazing to see how much Transition has grown in St Andrews over the past 2 years. At the beginning of the last academic year, Transition was a small contingent of One World. After an unsuccessful bid the year before, most students had graduated and we had to start a new. Luckily we had a keen group of students and lot of support from academic staff and Estates, without whom we would never have gotten where we have today.

Last year, most of our efforts were focused on reworking and writing a new bid to the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund. That took a considerable amount of time and energy so we were unable to organise events outside of this. We were delighted to find out in March that our efforts were rewarded with £90,000 to run our project this year. And that of course meant more work; finding an office, going through the recruitment process, sorting out a governance strategy… but by May we had three full-time staff members working to turn our ideas into reality.
Our Project Officers have done a grand job. Developing a beautiful website, facebook, and twitter, and supporting a cornucopia of green societies and initiatives around St Andrews. Each brings their own enthusiasm and expertise to the group, which has led to a boom in ‘green’ things happening in St Andrews; Skillshares, cooking classes, eco-printing, multiple community gardens, Carbon Conversations and so many more projects have taken root and will continue on after our Project Officers leave us at the end of this month.

Our monthly Open Forums have also been a huge success. The Steering Group, not the Project Officers, have organised these to bring in new ideas and support other projects that are happening in St Andrews. For example, out of the October Open Forum emerged ideas and a working group for the most recent bid, the Giftshare, and an interactive art project was developed. Not only has Transition focused on grassroots change in the past year we have also been engaging University management on issues of sustainability. At our last Open Forum we were delighted to have both the President of the Students’ Association and the Principal come speakabout sustainability at the University.

It has been a whirlwind year and Transition is just going to keep getting bigger and better. Transition St Andrews has been successfully funded for another three years! Meaning there will be dedicated staff to make sure new projects have the support they need. This round of funding was done jointly with locals as well so now the University community can more easily branch out to the wider community. We also have a new cohort of keen individuals on the Steering Group! Our AGM last week saw an overwhelming, and surprising, level of interest and I am so excited to see all the enthusiasm and hope for the future!

 

Joshua Msika:

First of all, I’m very honoured to have been chosen as the new Transition Co-ordinator by the all those who attended the AGM last Tuesday. I’d been hovering on the fringes of the Transition movement here at the university since the bid-writing began in early 2011, being far too busy helping to run OneWorld’s food co-op, the University Community Garden and a whole range of other lesser initiatives in a similar vein. When Transition’s AGM was first mentioned to me I didn’t even consider joining let alone running for the position of co-ordinator: I didn’t have enough time. But then the idea grew on me and I realised that the initiatives I helped to get off the ground had grown beyond me. People involved with the garden and the food co-op were taking over leadership roles and taking the responsibilities off my shoulders.

This freed me up to start thinking seriously about joining the steering group and encouraged me to think about why I’d want to do it. I realised that what Transition really needed was to continue its fantastic efforts and keep its own initiatives moving but also to broaden its appeal and reach out to all of the other great things going on in the university.

That’s where we, the Transition Steering group will be directing our efforts over the coming year: firstly keeping the funded projects going with the help of the paid staff and secondly reaching out to all of the environmental and not-so-environmental groups in the university and bringing them together to build a resilient, forward-looking community. The “transition” into Transition’s second phase has begun: we’ve got a strong roots, let’s grow from here!

 

Some members of the new Transition Steering Group along with Jane Kells (St AndEN) and Rebecca Vivers (Climate Challenge Fund)

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