campus news you are what you eat ericschlosser, the award- winning author oF “Fast Food nation,” delivered a provocative commencement speech that earned him a standing ovation. her job. And during the same period that Tyson was cutting the wages of meatpacking workers and reducing their benefits, the company was almost tripling the salary of its chief executive. In Bye dwa r d weinm a n 2004, while claiming that money was too tight to pay workers anything more, John Tyson got paid $20.9 million. Whitman Magazine: of all the colleges in theu.S., why deliver Whitman’s 2012 Commencement Speech? In “Fast Food Nation,” you write that the mistreatment of workers eric Schlosser: I was honored to be invited. I’ve been to Whit- is a symptom of a broken food system. The book was a Newyork man a few times. I first passed through in January 2002 to attend Times best-seller for more than two years. Why was it so popular? a union meeting in Pasco for workers at the Tyson slaughterhouse “Fast Food Nation” had all this information people were being … I came back a few years later to attend a rally in support of denied. Consumers didn’t know where their food was coming Maria Martinez, the courageous union leader at the meatpack- from. I was one of those people. It’s amazing how alienated we’ve ing plant. The rally was held on Whitman’s campus … In my become from our food system, due to the centralized control of involvement to help meatpacking workers I got to know some it. We’ve been turned into passive consumers of this manufac- Whitman students and professors. I was impressed that at Whit- tured product rather than being engaged, active and aware. man there’s an effort to engage with the local community. How do we fix this problem? How did the union meetings turn out? We need to have a food system that is much more decentralized, I’d like to tell you that the story had a happy ending. But it didn’t. and treats workers, livestock and consumers with much more re- Tyson Foods pushed the union out of the plant, and Maria lost spect. We need to move from uniform and heavily processed 2012 Faculty and staFF award recipients Leena S. Knight Jennifer Blomme John D. Cotts Suzanne L. Martin Award for George Ball Award for Excellence in robert Y. Fluno Award for Distinguished Excellence in Mentoring Advising Teaching in Social Sciences A.E. Lange Award senior Lecturer of Associate Professor for Distinguished sport studies and of History John Cotts Science Teaching Head swimming joined the Whitman Assistant Professor of Coach Jennifer faculty in 2004 and Biology Leena Knight Blomme came to specializes in joined the Whitman Whitman in 2000. she medieval and early faculty in 2007. she was named the 2011 modern Europe. He is specializes in cellular NWC Women’s swim the author of “The neurophysiology and Coach of the year. A Clerical Dilemma: offers her students student nominator Peter of Blois and many opportunities to wrote: “Jenn has Literate Culture in the experience their recently coached the Twelfth Century.” A research first-hand in men’s and women’s student nominator the lab. A student teams to their most wrote: “I wanted to who nominated her wrote: “Her passion for the successful season so far. The teams broke 16 remain in the mathematics and sciences, but material and ability to clearly articulate the school records at conference, and as if these my liberal arts education encouraged me to subject matter have made her classes a joy to accomplishments weren’t enough, the GPAs of enroll in new coursework. In doing so, I met be in. … Dr. Knight has invited me into her the men’s and women’s swim teams are among one, if not the best, mentor I have ever had: Dr. home and gone above and beyond her ‘duties’ the highest in the nation. Jenn has succeeded John Cotts. He does not merely demonstrate as a professor to become a mentor in my life. in creating a team culture in which everyone is passion for history, but embodies it during she really cares about her students and so pushed to excel not only as a swimmer, but every lecture, seminar and office hour often puts our needs above her own.” also as a student, teammate and leader.” meeting.” 8 Whitman Magazine
Whitman Magazine July 2012
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