Colleges and universities are unique institutions — they provide opportunities to stretch the imagination yet still take care of the daily needs of thousands of students. Instutions of higher learning have an obligation to teach by example. They can show students that it's possible to transform business for the 21st century and responsibly meet the needs of a large population.

One way colleges can do this is by building local economies. They can help create the infrastructure and purchase essential items like food from local farmers and purveyors. Students then see an example of positive corporate citizenship: Their college is reducing its dependence on fossil fuels needed to ship food grown thousands of miles away. 

One local example is Oberlin College's food service provider, Bon Appétit, invested $6200 toward a greenhouse and waste oil furnace (used to generate heat) at nearby George Jones Farm in April 2006.

The greenhouse will lengthen the growing season and thus ensure that the college can buy more local produce.

Oberlin paved the way by committing to increase the purchase of local food from five percent to 30 percent in the past five years, and attempting to increase local purchases to 50 percent by 2007.

How can this be done — how can colleges and universities leverage their purchasing power to advise their food purveyers to buy more local food? How can they incentivize the creation of a local food market and help build the infrastructure?

Resources:

• Ecological Design Innovation Center in Oberlin
• Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education
• Bringing local foods to local institutions
• Portland State University works with mega-food supplier Sodexho to purchase local produce, dairy and meats 
• University of Michigan kicks Coke off campus pending labor investigations in India