Two Years of Food Systems Change at USD

This fall the Center for Food Systems Transformation (CFST) marks two years of working to align USD’s food systems with the university’s values — and begins another ambitious year.

Launched in Fall 2024 with a day-long conference held ahead of the American Academy of Religion meetings in San Diego, the CFST has built its work on three fronts: listening to what USD students actually want from campus food, supporting values-aligned change in campus dining, and connecting USD to national conversations about sustainable food systems.

"When we launched the Center, the hope was simple: that the food USD serves should reflect the values USD teaches," says Aaron Gross, director of the CFST. "Two years in, what encourages me most is not any one program, but how many people across campus — students, faculty, and University Dining — have made this work their own."

Highlights from the Center’s first two years:

• The USD Student Food Choices Survey, developed with Professor of Sociology Julia Cantzler, PhD, JD, gathered responses from roughly 300 students: more than 80% are concerned about the harms of food production, and more than 75% want additional plant-based options across campus dining.
• The Laudato Si’ Food Committee — faculty, staff, students and University Dining — delivered a recommendation to adopt plant-based defaults in campus dining as the most effective step USD can take on its food-related (“Scope 3”) emissions.
• CFST events brought Harvard’s Cass Sunstein, Rev. Dr. Christopher Carter, and Chan Master Venerable Xianshu into conversation with USD audiences — with campus events selling out — alongside partnerships with Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and the Better Food Foundation.
• The Center’s work reached wider publics through Vox, KPBS Midday Edition, and the Times of San Diego.

The year ahead raises the bar: a new Faculty Advisory Board convenes in September, a major public event with envrionmental journalist Michael Grunwald is planned for October 14, Cass Sunstein will return this Winter in a webinar on his new book about animals and the second round of the Food Choices Survey launches in spring.

To follow along — and to hear event dates first — join the CFST listserv.