I.D.E.A.S. presents panel discussion, think-tank session

UCF student organization, Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions, hosted both a panel discussion and a think-tank session during their meeting on Monday. The meeting provided students with information about the organization's future projects and events, as well as gave students the opportunity to collaborate with one another for ideas on sustainability in regards to UCF.

I.D.E.A.S. is an organization on campus that supports sustainable avenues for a more eco-friendly environment, such as recycling paper and oil, water and energy savings, the use of organic coffee, and UCF Dining Services' reusable to-go containers.

Originally founded in the summer of 2008, the student group focuses on the different ways in which the major environmental issues present today can be altered through "realistic actions," and through the avocation of their motto, "Educate, engage, and empower UCF students in environmental sustainability."

Sophomore Maheen Hasan, an undeclared major, came out to the meeting to increase her knowledge of sustainable resources and her awareness of her own actions in regards to the environment.

"I want to get more involved with the environment and get more informed about it," Hasan said. "I think people should be more informed about the environment, especially people our age. We can be lazy, for example not taking the effort to recycle. It's something so simple and so important, but people don't do it."

The panel portion of the meeting included several key guest speakers from the community: Tia Meer, owner of Grow Delights LLC; Summer Singletary, a UCF student and E. Co's director of agriculture; Alex Stringfellow, community garden coordinator at the UCF arboretum; and Eden Wetherell, sustainability coordinator at UCF Dining Services.

The panel discussion included several different topics that related back to the environment, such as environmental cooperatives, organic farming, the food life cycle, the proper way to cook food, and organic versus conventional food consumption.

Stringfellow, one of the guest speakers at the meeting, spoke about two case studies involving the contrast between organically grown and conventionally grown foods in terms of nutrient content. Through one of the case studies, "Organic: the investment" Stringfellow spoke about the benefits of organic farming.

"In the short term, conventional is going to look just as good as organically grown vegetables," Stringfellow said. "Long-term [is where] the change is going to happen. It's going to be small, it's going to be incremental, but it took decades and decades to screw everything up. It's going to take decades and decades to bring everything back."

Also discussed during the meeting was UCF Dining Services' Food 4 Thought Week, which began Monday. This week is filled with different "green," or eco-friendly, programs and events on campus, including an upcoming movie showing of "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" Friday at 5 p.m. in Student Union room 316.

Following the panel discussion, the meeting broke out into two groups forming think-tanks for two different topics: organic farming practices and developing farming cooperatives.

Through these think-tanks, students worked together to discuss and create new practices that could be introduced to the UCF community in regards to environmental sustainability.

Students also talked about their favorite foods and their own reasons for cooking.

Co-president of I.D.E.A.S, Sebastian Church, within one of the discussion groups, lent his opinion that cooking was an art form.

"My favorite thing about food is that cooking is very much a science, but it is also very much an art," Church said. "You have to feel what you're doing with the food, and you have to be willing to make a connection with your food."