The Pleasures of Eating

This is, when you think about it, by design. We’ve designed a system that puts food on our plates without it being food for thought. We’ve designed a system where other people do our thinking—and our food preparation—for us.

In “The Pleasures of Eating”, Wendell Berry outlines an alternative to this food forgetfulness, inviting us to eat responsibly and respectfully. He contends that eating “is inescapably an agricultural act” and that how we eat determines how the earth is used. He suggests that “good food” doesn’t just taste good—it’s food that does good all the way from farm to fork. Raised by farmers who care for the lasting health of the land and its communities (both human and natural), good food is good for the world. So the pleasures of eating come not just from the mouth, but from the mind and spirit—from the knowledge that our food feeds our faces and a regenerative culture of agriculture that can nourish us forever.

Bon Appetit supplies the food for us in Stav Hall, serving about 80,000 meals a week during the school year. At the national level, Bon Appetit is committed to serving fresh food; creating menus with lots of fruits, vegetables, legumes and grains; purchasing from regional food producers and artisans; purchasing produce that is locally grown, seasonal, and minimally processed; contributing to local food banks; purchasing seafood that preserves healthy fish supplies; boycotting businesses that violate farmworkers’ rights to good working and living conditions; offering fair-trade, shade-grown, and organic coffees; testing biodegradable disposables; and recycling packaging whenever possible.

Bon Appetit’s environmental ethic is also present at the local level. At St. Olaf, General Manager Hays Atkins buys local apples and corn in season, and procures all of the cafeteria’s pasta from a North Dakota farmers’ cooperative. Pork products come from Six Point Berkshire, a southwest Minnesota business that raises Berkshire hogs without antibiotics and growth hormones, and without huge confinement pens. In March, Bon Appetit contracted for milk from a dairy cooperative called Deja Moo. Based in Bismarck, N.D., the farmers guarantee humane treatment of their animals. This means that the milk contains no growth hormones, no antibiotics, and comes from herds no larger than 200 cows. Not only does the contract provide good milk for St. Olaf students, but the security of a large buyer like Bon Appetit actually enabled Deja Moo to stay in business and preserve good jobs in Bismarck.