Garden could offer organic food to Collins

When students go to college, they typically relinquish having any kind of food that resembles home cooking -- let alone grown in their backyard. But a group at IU is trying to change that by adding a garden near the Collins Living-Learning Center so the organic food that is grown there can be used in the Collins food court. \nStudents Producing Organics Under The Sun, or SPROUTS, has just one more obstacle in its way of creating a garden on the corner of Eighth Street and Fess Avenue: the approval of IU landscaping director Mia Williams.\n"The garden was an effort that started a year ago with a class ... where an option was to try to come up with a plan for an organic garden for Collins," said junior Danny Atlas, co-founder of SPROUTS.\nThe group wants students at Collins to be able to have their own plots where they can grow food to take home and eat. \n"If you grow your own food, your energy, your passion for it makes it taste better," Atlas said. \nAs well as providing students with food, the group hopes to grow fresh vegetables and herbs that could be used in the salad bar at the Collins cafeteria. \nThe garden is planned to be completely organic, using no artificial pesticides or fertilizers. Organically grown food is not only better for the environment but also more nutritious. According to the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, organically grown crops have significantly more nutrition than conventional crops, including 27 percent more vitamin C and over 20 percent more iron. In a study conducted by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 20 out of 29 fertilizers studied were so toxic that they wouldn't even be allowed in public landfills.\nInstead of using fertilizers, the garden will use compost from the food waste of Collins cafeteria. Collins cafeteria produces 48 tons of trash a year and a quarter of that is food waste, Atlas said. \n"We're providing the garden with something it needs anyway," said SPROUTS co-founder senior Justin Peterson.\nTo help raise funds for the garden, a benefit concert will be held from 8 p.m. to midnight April 16 at Max's Place.\nWith the garden, SPROUTS also hopes to create awareness of the problem they see with the concentration of farming in a few places.\n"One farmer grows enough food for a couple of cities," said Nathan Harman , IU graduate student in earthen architecture and sustainable settlement.\nThis system requires that vast amounts of oil be used to transport the food over the long distance from the farm to the dinner table. \n"Once the oil runs out, we won't be able to get cheap food from around the world," said Lucille Bertuccio, who teaches classes about the environment. \nA solution to this problem is to localize food production. \n"If everybody did a little, that would immediately cut down on waste from shipping and packaging," Harman said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Ben Woodson at bwoodson@indiana.edu.