Emmaline Bigongiari presents at Pickle-nic. Hailey Hoffman // AS Review
By Gwen Frost
This Wednesday, May 16, Students for Sustainable Food held a Picklenic on Old Main lawn! That’s right, a Picklenic. Or pickle-picnic for those out of touch with the lingo.
Hosts Maddy Gehr and Emmaline Bigongiari discussed with attendees how animal agriculture relates to colonialism, both historically and today.
Bigongiari brought up how veganism does not belong to white people, even though white veganism pretends that it does. The dozen attendees entered a discussion about how people can work to decolonize their diets.
Over an array of pickle-macaroni salad, Gehr’s mom’s homemade pickles, hummus and schomrgasboard of other pickled treats, guests mingled discussing the political and societal consequences of the food we eat and where it comes from.
In bringing about food justice, the topic of ending WWU’s relationship with Aramark and supporting farmworker justice both came into the event.
Kyla Garlid asked the group about diet culture, feminized labor roles and what it means to be healthy. And then everyone learned an invaluable lesson: how to pickle red onions. This invaluable picnic teach-in is a good example of how learning could be; sitting on blankets in the grass with pickled goods and excellent listeners.