UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN GOES ORGANIC

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In December of 2000, the University of Wisconsin at Madison became
the first major public university in the U.S. to commit to putting foods
grown on local farms on the regular menu at their dorm dining centers.
This fall, organic hamburgers replaced all conventional burgers in all
University student cafeterias, which serve 15,000 meals a day. This
action was taken in response to the University Housing Food Service's
desire to offer fresh, quality food and to student demands for more
organic food in the cafeterias.

The burgers are produced by local farmers and distributed to the
University by Organic Valley, a nationwide farm cooperative. The Food
Service also plans to serve all-organic salads, but cannot, as of yet, find
enough local organic farmers to fill their supply needs.
"We're a land-grant university that's supposed to be supporting local
farmers and reducing environmental impact," said John Hendrickson
(jhendric@facstaff.wisc.edu ), senior outreach specialist for the Center for
Integrated Agricultural Systems. The Center originally introduced the
Food Service's top administrator to local, sustainably-produced foods at
an event in 1997 with Chefs' Collaborative 2000.
At the Center's web page for The College Food Project -
http://www.wisc.edu/cias/research/institut.html - are case studies,
economic analyses, sample menus, analysis of barriers, supplier lists
and purchasing contracts to help others replicate the achievements of
the University of Wisconsin.

Though the price of organic hamburgers for UW students is the same as
previous years' conventional burgers, the price of the patties for the Food
Service is nearly double that of the non-organic type. The constant price
was made possible by a very small increase in the room and dorm fee
paid by students.