April 16–22 is Earth Week at Yale. Groups around campus are hosting events to celebrate our planet and the efforts of those who steward it. If you’re planning a sustainability-related event during the week that you would like to have featured, contact the Yale Office of Sustainability, and it will be added.
Wednesday, April 18
Yale Farm Workday
Yale Farm, 345 Edwards St, 1:00PM – 4:00PM
Everyone, including non-Yale affiliates, is welcome to volunteer on the Yale Farm. No gardening experience is necessary. Just bring a water bottle and wear weather- and work-appropriate clothing. If you are a group of more than five people, please give us a week’s notice of your planned visit: call us at (203) 432-2084 or email sustainablefood@yale.edu. If you are coming with fewer than five people, no advance notice is necessary.
Once you’ve arrived, find a student intern wearing a YSFP wheelbarrow t-shirt. These interns are in charge of the workday, and will sign you in and explain the day’s work before assigning you a task. What you’ll do depends on the day and the season. On a fall Friday you might be helping to harvest tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli and kale; an early winter Sunday might find you planting garlic and tulips for spring. Feel free to ask questions of the interns in charge – we want you to learn as well as work!
Thursday, April 19
Justifying farm animal welfare standards: perspectives from science and ethics
Yale Law School, Room 124, 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Despite its exponential growth as an academic research area, and increasing presence in public discussions, farm animal welfare remains a low priority, especially when considered within the broader landscape of social and environmental justice. From a regulatory standpoint, the welfare of farm animals also remains a low priority in the United States, and considerations of welfare are often outweighed by the need to produce ever increasing amounts of cheap animal protein. Using the example of welfare standards for broiler chickens in the United States, this presentation addresses the tensions between social values and scientific objectivity in the development and application of animal welfare standards.
Helen Zoe Veit PhD ’08, Associate Professor of History, Michigan State University
Pierson College, Leitner House, 231 Park Street, 4:00 PM
Helen Zoe Veit specializes in American history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on the history of food and nutrition. Her first book, Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century explores food and nutrition in the Progressive Era. Modern Food, Moral Food was a finalist for the 2014 James Beard Award in Reference and Scholarship. She is now writing a book called Small Appetites: A History of Children’s Food, which examines the history of children’s eating during the last two hundred years. Sponsored by the Traphagen Alumni Speaker Series Fund, the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities, and the Yale Sustainable Food Program.
Friday, April 20
Yale Farm Workday
Yale Farm, 345 Edwards St, 2:00PM – 4:00PM
Everyone, including non-Yale affiliates, is welcome to volunteer on the Yale Farm. No gardening experience is necessary. Just bring a water bottle and wear weather- and work-appropriate clothing. If you are a group of more than five people, please give us a week’s notice of your planned visit: call us at (203) 432-2084 or email sustainablefood@yale.edu. If you are coming with fewer than five people, no advance notice is necessary.
Once you’ve arrived, find a student intern wearing a YSFP wheelbarrow t-shirt. These interns are in charge of the workday, and will sign you in and explain the day’s work before assigning you a task. What you’ll do depends on the day and the season. On a fall Friday you might be helping to harvest tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli and kale; an early winter Sunday might find you planting garlic and tulips for spring. Feel free to ask questions of the interns in charge – we want you to learn as well as work!
Sunday, April 22
Peabody Museum Connect to the Earth!
Yale Peabody Museum, 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Join us for Earth Day and rediscover the wonders of nature. Explore specimens from our collections that are rarely on display, and learn about the beetles, birds, and botanical bounty that share our planet home. We’ll have fun and engaging activities for the whole family, and representatives from many New Haven area organizations working to protect our environment and create a sustainable future will be here sharing their expertise and opportunities. Museum admission is required.
Earth Fest
Cross Campus, 450 College St, 1:00PM – 4:00PM
Join the Sustainability Service Corps for an Earth Day Fair on Cross Campus, Sunday, April 22, 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. The Fair will include a flea market, where attendees can bring any unwanted clothes or other belongings and take anything left by another person. All leftover clothing will be donated to Trans Closet at Yale and non-clothing material will be sent to Yale’s Spring Salvage. The Fair will feature undergraduate and graduate organizations related to sustainability and performance groups from Yale College and Yale F&ES as well as marking the official launch of Yale’s new bikeshare system. Yale Transportation Options will provide technology demos and explain how the system works, provide vouchers for both the Rock to Rock ride and a free week of rides.
All Yale students are welcome.
Yale Farm Workday
Yale Farm, 345 Edwards St, 1:00PM – 4:00PM
Everyone, including non-Yale affiliates, is welcome to volunteer on the Yale Farm. No gardening experience is necessary. Just bring a water bottle and wear weather- and work-appropriate clothing. If you are a group of more than five people, please give us a week’s notice of your planned visit: call us at (203) 432-2084 or email sustainablefood@yale.edu. If you are coming with fewer than five people, no advance notice is necessary.
Once you’ve arrived, find a student intern wearing a YSFP wheelbarrow t-shirt. These interns are in charge of the workday, and will sign you in and explain the day’s work before assigning you a task. What you’ll do depends on the day and the season. On a fall Friday you might be helping to harvest tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli and kale; an early winter Sunday might find you planting garlic and tulips for spring. Feel free to ask questions of the interns in charge – we want you to learn as well as work!
Saturday, April 28
10th Annual Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride
West Rock, 358 Springside Avenue
Rock to Rock is New Haven’s largest Earth Day celebration. This year is the 10th annual ride from West Rock to East Rock. The event is open to the public and welcoming of everyone ages 5-99. URI is the lead organizing partner for the event. The event supports URI and two dozen local non-profits doing environmental work. Join participating partners for an environmental day of service on April 7. Listen to live music at the start and end and along the way. Breakfast is served at the ride start at Common Ground. There will be a Green Fair at the end of the ride in East Rock Park. Cyclists can choose between 5 beautiful green routes: 5-mile parade, 12-mile, 20-mile, 40-mile, and metric century.
Multi-day Activities
Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology
April 18–20
Hosted at Yale University, the Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology reflects a desire to provide a space for students to engage in dynamic, interdisciplinary conversations across curricular boundaries, and strives to connect ethos with ethics, and ethics to applicable practicality. How do beliefs about the environment affect the use of and engagement with the natural world? As an international interdisciplinary conference, we host students researching Environmental Studies, Environmental Humanities, Forestry, Conservation, History, Historiography, Social Sciences, Food Studies, Philosophy, Ethics & Morals, Theology, Religious Studies, Animal Ethics, Law & Policy, and Business & Management, among others. We strongly encourage interdisciplinary work across these topics to reflect the interdisciplinary nature of this conference. Our presenters range from undergraduate students to PhD candidates, and even include professionals who are implementing our academic work in the workplace. For 2018, GCRE’s theme is WATER. GCRE is open to the public for attendance. If you are planning on only attending the talks, the conference is free. However, meals are only included for conference presenters. The Yale Divinity School Refectory is open from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. and takes credit cards or Yale dining points for all who would like to purchase food and drinks.