Appleton spent five weeks in New Zealand studying ecology, biodiversity, and climate change with a group of Augsburg students led by biology professor Brian Corner and political science professor Joe Underhill. Their group explored the unique flora and fauna of the island as well as the distinctive political culture that has made it a leader in environmental policy.

“I was completely amazed by everything I saw in New Zealand,” Appleton said. “Everyone is aware of the environment, of sustainability, of food production and energy use. From the north island to the south island, everything is consistent.”

Appleton, an environmental studies major who will complete his Augsburg classes this fall semester, wanted to take ideas from New Zealand back to Augsburg and to Minneapolis. He wrote to Mayor Rybak, who has been a strong supporter of Augsburg and values the College’s commitments to service and the city.

The mayor was reportedly excited about the letter—enough to have his assistant contact Appleton to schedule a meeting to discuss the young man’s ideas for making Minneapolis a more sustainable and livable city.

Kjerstin Hagen ’10, an American Indian studies major who traveled last summer to Portland, Ore. and Vancouver studying urban sustainability, joined Appleton on his visit to the mayor’s office. Hagen was one of the students involved in implementing Augsburg’s composting effort and is currently on the planning team for the College’s first Sustainability Awareness Month.

The students shared their travel experiences with Rybak and told him about ongoing sustainability efforts at Augsburg, many of which were initiated by students. “Augsburg is doing exactly what I believe in,” Rybak said.

Appleton and Hagen suggested a sister city relationship with Wellington, New Zealand’s capital city. They also discussed Homegrown Minneapolis, an initiative to develop recommendations for the City of Minneapolis to improve sales, distribution and consumption of fresh, locally grown foods.

The three agreed that informing and educating the community is an important factor in promoting urban sustainability. “New Zealand empowers the community to get involved,” Appleton said, “and gives people the resources to do what needs to be done.” Rybak encouraged Appleton and Hagen to sign up for one of the city’s committees so that they could continue their work outside of Augsburg.

After telling Rybak about the Sustainability Awareness Month activities scheduled for September, including a lecture presented by author and activist, Bill McKibben, the mayor promised that he or his wife, who has been actively involved with Minneapolis Homegrown, will be in attendance at one of the events to talk about the city’s sustainability measures and projects.

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At left is Franz Josef Glacier, and what follows is a posting from the BioLOG by Richmond Appleton.

Today, I conquered one of [my] can’t do attitudes by hiking on the Franz Josef Glaciers with eleven members of our group, woo! It was really fun to see glacier for the very first time in my life. But not only did I see it, I walked on it.

The history of the glacier is quite intriguing. Julius von Haast, a geologist and explorer, named the glacier Franz Josef Glacier in 1863, after the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Approximately 7000 years old, and a residue of a much older and larger glacier that originally swept right to the sea, Franz Josef Glacier extends 12 kilometers from its three feeder glaciers in the high snow fields of the Alps. Currently, the life-threatening face is about 19 kilometers from the sea and just 5 kilometers from the township. By 1954 the glacier had retreated so that it was no longer visible from the town. The forward moving from melting ice and waterfall from surrounding mountains to the glacier brought it back into public view.

From early Maori legends this glacier was called Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere. The Tears of a Maori Girl (Hinehukatere), Hinehukatere loved climbing in the mountains and persuaded her lover, Tawe, to climb with her. Tawe fell from the peaks of the mountains and died. Hinehukatere was broken hearted and her many, many tears froze to form the glacier.

The Franz Josef Glaciers run via amazing glacial valleys to flow into a beautiful rainforest. What is unique about Franz Josef Glacier is that unlike any other of the world’s glaciers that retreat, these glaciers still flow almost to sea level, which makes them very exceptional relics of the last Ice Age. Because the glacier lies between huge winds called the roaring forties, the wind rise above the Southern Alps causing cooling and moisture as it rains and snows. Even though the glaciers start to melt from the top at lower altitude, the elevated snowfall constantly pushes ice down the valleys at very fast speed. This creates a barrier sliding, placing deposits of water beneath the glaciers, formed by the weight of the ice pushing against the valley floor. These factors cause the Franz Josef glacier to flow at faster rate up to 10 times faster than most valley glaciers in the world.

It was amazing to see how the glaciers flow over large bedrock and overhang everything around it. Sometimes I could hear the ice break up as it forms steep icefalls and sometime creating mullins, tiny holes that turn into tunnels making pathways. This was a unique glacier experience for me to walk on large impressive landscape of ice that I have never dreamed of before. It was really awesome!!

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This semester, students in SBS 100: Environmental Connections have studied how food fits into both our socio-economic and ecological systems. This Wednesday, they will put that knowledge into action as the class members will serve a meal that they helped the A’viands staff prepare. The entire Augsburg community is invited to share this “grub” with the class. The menu was chosen based on how the food was produced and transported.

Some of the ingredients were grown on campus. Almost all of the items were produced locally. Special consideration was placed on supporting suppliers that use environmentally friendly practices and pay employees a fair wage.

The meal–which is part of the final exam for the students–is meant to inform members of the Augsburg community about the environmental and social impact of the food we eat.

The course syllabus spells out rather simply the goals of the class: This year our focus is on food–what we eat, where it comes from, and the effects of food production and consumption on bodily, community, and planetary health.

To reach that point, students in Environmental Connections, the introductory course to Augsburg’s new environmental studies major, have learned about the history, economics, sociology, math, and science behind food and food production. They planted seeds in Augsburg’s greenhouse and are harvesting the fruits of their labors on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning prior to the lunch. The class also visited local farmers markets and co-ops.

Richmond Appleton, a senior environmental studies major and Peter Klink [pictured left], a first-year studying marketing and environmental studies, said the class has been enlightening. “Most of the food we eat has a huge impact on the environment, like just one cup of coffee,” Appleton said. The class visited the Peace Coffee Company in Minneapolis to learn about the impact of coffee and the company’s efforts to promote sustainability and fair/free trade. Peace Coffee delivers all coffee within 20 miles of its South Minneapolis location by bike and delivers the remainder in a van powered by biodiesel. All employees receive a fair wage and are able to travel to the countries where their coffee is grown and produced in order to learn firsthand about its production.

Appleton and Klink also said the class was surprised to learn that more than 60 percent of the carbon found in our hair comes from corn. This is due to the preponderance of corn additives, particularly the ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup, found in our food. (http://asap.sustainability.uiuc.edu/)

The class, which is being co-taught by Michael Lansing (history) and Joe Underhill (political science), has featured guest lectures from professors across campus. For example, John Zobitz, an assistant professor of mathematics, talked about the carbon cost of food. “Determining ‘how far’ food travels from farm to plate is a challenge to quantify because of the many different ways food can be transported and processed,” Zobitz said.

Prior to Zobitz’ lecture, students analyzed their diet for a week and determined what proportion came from particular food groups. They then calculated the average distance their food traveled based on a recent published study. Students also determined the carbon footprint (or total emissions) for their food choices and discussed how different diet choices affect the emissions output of food and how to quantify a local diet.

The course also focused on food justice issues such as “food deserts” and out-of-balance food environments. In neighborhoods without grocery stores where most readily available food comes from fast food restaurants and convenience stores, residents are unable to make healthy choices. One study conducted by the Mari Galagher Research & Consulting Group in Chicago found that in these areas residents are more likely to die prematurely and at greater rates from diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases and to suffer from obesity and hypertension.

Students have also spent a lot of time in class talking about changing habits. “Changing what you eat is hard when you are a student,” Klink said. “We’ve struggled with how to do that,” Klink said, “because making one change hurts others. For example, if we all quit eating meat, people in the meat industry lose jobs.”

Wednesday’s menu (some items subject to change)

• Radish soup
• Mesclun salad with local greens & spinach
• Free range chicken
• Walleye chowder
• Shepherd’s pie with winter vegetables (kale, beets, chard, winter squash)
• Pumpkin ice cream from Izzy’s and Kemps
• Caramel apple crumble pie
• Apple cider (hot and cold) from Nesbitt’s Orchard

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