Manifesto by Molly Gilmore

During my time in the Environmental Studies program, there has been one observation that has held my attention more than any. The observation is that representation and framing are the most important aspects of a society that affect how they are ran, and what people deem as important. For example, lobbyists know this is the case and spend their whole career making sure a specific frame on society exists so that their agenda is perpetuated. I started seeing this theme in ENST 295 and was certain that my change in the world would be situated around reframing the way society perceives the world and the environment. (If there is a reframing of the value of the environment versus the value of oil, things would be very different). Then in ENST 395, I learned of another concept that solidified this observation and revalidated my passion for it: Regimes of Truth. Regime of truth is a concept first described by Michel Foucault, explaining that truth is entangled with systems of power and privilege, and those with the power hold what society deems as truth. To be clearer, for example, Western science has the power to be deemed as ultimate truth over other systems of knowledge such as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of Indigenous Peoples. But behind the scenes of Western science, there are enormous amounts of power, and dare I say political regimes, making sure a there are specific outcomes that are portrayed in scientific findings.

My fascination with these regimes of truth followed me into my Capstone class where I decided to pursue education with a purpose of exploring how regimes of truth are situated in our education systems and relating institutions. So, I chose to work the Sunny Brae Middle School after school program. For most of my time there I wanted to soak in what it is like to work with kids (for the first time) and imagine how their education is shaping their view of the world. I still felt as though this concept was too broad to actually make any progress, so I started to explore my other passions. This led me to the connection with the food justice movement and how regimes are affecting how food is perceived and consumed.

In the last few weeks at the after school program, I facilitated an activity around the reframing of food and how it is connected to sustainability and accessibility. The first day I did a small gardening workshop including how to pot kale plant starters and how to germinate parsley seeds. During our workshop I asked the students what foods they usually eat and if they know where their food is grown. The response I got was interesting to me, because most of them already had a great sense of where their food comes from and how to garden. Furthermore, some of the children told me they couldn’t access local, organic foods because they were too expensive and their living conditions didn’t permit growing food. In this sense, I think I failed a bit in my capstone experience, but in another sense I think I succeeded. I failed to reframe healthy, sustainable foods as being a viable option for the children, but I succeeded in understanding that the problem is larger than just me and them. I have to refocus my attention back to the structures that are making healthy, sustainable foods disproportionately available to the whole population in order to be the social change agent that I expect I can be. This has been a wonderful learning experience for me and this opportunity has lead me down the path of pursuing food justice oriented work in the future. I am grateful for my time in the Environmental Studies program and I am thrilled to see where this path will take me and my peers going further.