Stanford University
OP-6: Food and Beverage Purchasing

The Sustainable Food Program is a collaborative effort led and managed by Stanford Dining that includes strategic partnerships with vendors and suppliers, students, staff, faculty and other campus stakeholders. Through these partnerships, the Sustainable Food Program seeks to create positive impact across three areas of focus: education, outreach, and awareness; collaboration and partnership; and operational and culinary excellence.

Please note that only 44% of Stanford's food is “sustainable” by the STARS definition. Using Stanford's definition of sustainable food, the figure is 55%. The difference is that STARS only counts items as sustainable if they are certified by a third party, like USDA certified organic. This is problematic in a few ways because, as an example, Stanford buys grass fed beef that is not USDA certified organic because it doesn’t need to be and is in any case more sustainable than a USDA certified organic confined animal feeding operation, which would otherwise count. Moreover, there is no third party certification process for many sustainable production practices, including grass fed beef and other pasture-based livestock management practices. Lastly, third party certification is in many cases unaffordable to those whose food Stanford prizes most: small family farmers, ranchers, and fishermen. For example, we buy 15,000 pounds of wild Alaskan salmon directly from a family of fishermen who fish the Taku River in Alaska—this is among the most sustainable of any seafood purchase transactions anywhere in the world. The Hardcastles (owners of the company) have not pursued Marine Stewardship Council certification, however, because it’s super costly (and it was originally established by the likes and scale of WalMart, to provide a sense for whom the certification was intended), which precludes Stanford's purchase of their fish from this survey.