When junior Rachel Atkinson first learned about the problems in the American food industry, she said she wanted to run away and become a farmer.
But she said Fair, Local, Organic Food, a student organization focused on improving the sustainability of food, showed her there is hope.
FLO held a public forum Tuesday night at Vimala’s Curryblossom Cafe to discuss issues of sustainability and equality in the food industry.
Vimala Rajendran, owner of the restaurant, said she was glad to help the group bring awareness to the issue.
“It makes me feel proud that I can tell the community exactly what is in the food,” Rajendran said. “I wouldn’t feed my guests what I wouldn’t feed my kids.”
Tom Philpott, food and agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones, co-founder of North Carolina’s Maverick Farms and a speaker at the event, said the sustainability movement is in danger.
“The problem with social movements in the U.S. is that they are impatient,” Philpott said.
Steve Wing, a professor at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, said consumers and farmers need to beat the system.
“We need to get away from the monopoly so we can get away from the poisons that affect the environment, the consumers and the workers,” Wing said.