By: Macy Kramer

Fort Collins, Colo. — In Fort Collins, Colorado, the distribution of food has caused a massive uptake in protests and community events to propose alternatives to the current methods of food distribution. The importance of more environmentally friendly options for distribution is explained in both Annie Leonard’s, “The Story of Stuff” as well as, “A case analysis of a sustainable food supply chain distribution system” by Validi, Sahar; Bhattacharya, Arijit; Byrne, P.J. Leonard. The article describes the importance of better methods by explaining how bad the current methods are. 

Leonard focuses less on food, and more on big companies like Amazon, Walmart, and H&M, going over the amount of environmental damage caused by those companies shipping using semi-trucks and container ships, the amount of fuel and energy they use is increasing constantly.

In Fort Collins and surrounding areas, most notably Denver, there are plans in place to better the shipment methods of food products and household products. 

The Fort Collins community has come up with, “The Growing Project”, an initiative that promotes an environmentally and socially just local food system through direct agricultural experiences, education, community building, economic opportunities, and advocacy.

The Growing Project aims to protect our environment and provide alternative methods to what is currently used in distribution, with a tagline of, “Food, People, Justice” — they are not only helping the environment, but also the people. 

One of the most interesting parts of their community, is the commons garden, a garden open to all that includes information on how to grow your own food, as well as provides food for local Fort Collins residents, reducing people’s impact on the environment by removing the need for trucks and boats to deliver the food, and only requires someone to walk to the garden to get their produce. Their Commons garden is not only beautiful but resourceful to reduce global Carbon Dioxide emissions and energy consumption.