The opportunities listed below are impactful ways you can make a difference on campus and at home through your dietary choices and support of local, sustainable agriculture.

Choose Plant-Based Foods

If the entire U.S. did not eat meat or cheese for just one day a week, it would be the equivalent of not driving 91 billion miles, or taking 7.6 million cars off the road. As a result, Meatless Mondays has become a well-known campaign to encourage people to eat lower on the food chain just one day a week. Eating a plant-based diet is one of the most impactful ways an individual can greatly reduce their carbon footprint.

Eat Seasonally

MSU Extension has made a guide to “What’s in Season” that you can download and print or keep on your mobile device to help you make better choices when at the grocery store. Eating seasonally means your food is being grown locally, therefore it’s fresher, more sustainably produced, and oftentimes cheaper.

The graphic above shows the printable "What's in Season" guide.

Flint Farmer's Market

Open year-round, the Flint Farmers Market is a great place to visit to learn more about and purchase sustainable, locally-grown food.

Edible Flint

Edible Flint is a non-profit organization working together with individuals and institutional partners to support community residents in growing and accessing healthy food in order to reconnect with the land and each other. If you are interested in getting more involved in sustainable food systems they have working groups and a Leadership Board you can get involved in.

Natural Means Nothing

Unlike the third-party verified certifications, the term “natural” has no official definition. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not defined the term and does not monitor its use or regulate it. As a result, when you see items in the store labeled “natural,” there is not necessarily a reason to pay more for those items. Buyer beware!

Try Foraging

Foraging is a really fun way to get in touch with nature and find free food! Michigan is a great state to find morel mushrooms, wild berries, and maple trees that you can tap for syrup. To know what can be safely harvested and where, refer to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.