COFED: Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive

Michael Pollan, Bill McKibben, and Slow Food USA president Josh Viertel are part of the launch committee that will help the Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive, or CoFed, movement come to a college campus near you. So what exactly is COFED? Well, right now it is much bigger on the West Coast than East Coast - but don't let that stop you from making a donation and getting involved!

The national "training program and research institute is empowering students to create ethically-sourced, cooperatively-run sustainable food storefronts and cafés on college campuses." Treehugger reports:

CoFed grew out of a campaign that successfully blocked the first fast food chain restaurant from opening on the University of California's Berkeley campus. The Berkeley student food co-op opened instead on November 15th and in 2010 alone, six teams on the west coast began working on doing the same at their own schools, from Santa Barbara to Seattle.

Complete with experts ready to help students with everything from retail and dealing with legal issues and incorporation, CoFed "will train a new generation of leaders with experience creating good, clean, fair food businesses and a new generation of eaters who believe in the power of community," said Josh Viertel.

Bill McKibben, 350.org founder, made this enlightened statement: "Colleges around the country are figuring out that they educate their students three times a day about either good food or bad - about a world where local matters, or where food is just a plate full of calories to get you through class. CoFed has the potential to be a crucial part of that process."

Learn more about the program here.