Agriculture and nudity may seem mutually exclusive, but "Ripe 2005," the Sustainable Food Initiative's 2005 calendar, cultivates the sensual side of fruits and vegetables in a natural way.
The calendar features 12 photographs of naked Brown students using locally grown produce to conceal their private parts - highlighting the contours of both their bodies and the vegetables - in an effort to promote sustainable food practices at Brown. All the proceeds will go towards local sustainable agriculture, including Brown's anticipated student-run farm and the Incubator Project, a program that buys tractors for local farmers who can't afford them.
"Someone as a joke called it 'veggie porn,' but it's really important that people know that we're looking at it from a more abstract perspective," said Kate Abarbanel '06, a photographer for the calendar. "It's not raunchy. It's more elegant."
In the spirit of organic farming, the images offer a visceral, uncorrupted representation of the human body. Each image incorporates a locally grown fruit or vegetable that is available during that month. The photos run the gamut from seven cantaloupes artistically placed on top of seven bare bottoms for August, to a model balancing a potato on his forehead for December, to the rear view of a model next to a purple cabbage for January.
Across the bottom of each image is an erotic recipe, accompanied by a relatively comprehensive list of foods that are available during that month.
"Hopefully we'll surprise a few people," said Louella Hill '04, food systems coordinator for Brown Dining Services and head of the Sustainable Food Initiative. But the surprise isn't the nudity, she said. "Most people wouldn't even think that those foods are within hand's reach."
Hill hopes that the calendar will spread awareness about the project she feels so passionate about, she said, and inspire more passion to bring local foods to Brown.
"The point of the calendar is so blatant," she said. "Eat what is luscious and ripe. The way to do that is by eating what is seasonal, and the best way to eat seasonally is by eating what is grown 30 miles away."
The calendar's concept sprang from the mind of Caroline Colesworthy, a graduate student in the environmental studies program. Hill presented her project to Colesworthy's environmental communications class earlier this year, explaining that in order to effect dramatic change in BuDS, the project needed more publicity, Colesworthy said.
"There are a lot of complicated reasons why local food is better - political, environmental, health. I wanted to give it a simple spin," she said. "Something that could really appeal to everyone. Art and sensuality are big winners."
Colesworthy, a vegan and a big "foodie," is a strong proponent of the "you are what you eat" mentality, she said. "It's a bit esoteric, but when we eat food, the environment becomes us, and that is why what we eat and maintaining a healthy environment are important."
Eating locally in Rhode Island is not always easy, especially in the winter, Hill said. But there are ways to accommodate the palate with the changing seasons, she said. The traditional Thanksgiving dinner demonstrates an appropriate winter meal that integrates local produce. The first Thanksgiving meal took place during a time when the agricultural economy wasn't dominated by conglomerate corporations that ship food thousands of miles in bulk. That is the current reality.
"If people won't eat squash soup in November and want tomato bruschetta, it's going to be hard to connect them to a local food system," Hill said.
A substantial portion of the food served at Brown travels to College Hill from distant places such as New Zealand, South Africa and Chile. The systematic bypassing of local farms is not only detrimental to the local economy - its effects also extend into the quality of the food, she said.
"It doesn't make sense for me to buy tomatoes from Holland or apples from South Africa, on the simple grounds that flavor and taste do not withstand that journey," Hill said.
Hill's response to critics of seasonal eating is that there is a time and place for certain foods, but she doesn't recommend gorging on potatoes all winter. "You can save up an urge and allow the desire to build throughout the year, so when it's the end of July and the corn is so sweet, when you take that first bite it's what you've been waiting for," she said.
About five weeks ago, when Hill approached Lucas Foglia '05, an art-semiotics concentrator, and asked him to collaborate, he was quick to volunteer as photographer. Foglia's senior thesis project deals heavily with sustainable agriculture and local food systems. The calendar presented an opportunity to help publicize an important message, he said.
"We've all been in the same boat, but this project is not so old," Foglia said. "The impact of the calendar is that it raises awareness about the vegetables. That was my intent - not to make the photos exploit the nudity."
Models also played a creative role in the shooting, Foglia said.
"I'm October," said Elizabeth Hoover, a graduate student in anthropology. She chose to be adorned with cranberries. "I think it was done very artistically so it wasn't meant to be sex and vegetables. They could have gone more that route."
Robin Averbeck '06 posed with several other students for the calendar. "I think it's a very exciting way to promote local and organic foods," she said. "People feel that environmentalists are always talking and not always connecting. This is very sexy in a way that speaks to people, but it's tastefully done."
Sara Egendorf '06 tremendously enjoyed the experience of posing, she said. "It was really a beautiful thing - one of the best experiences of my life."
Faculty members have also expressed support for the Sustainable Food Initiative, including Mark Cladis, professor of religious studies. "The average food shipment today travels 2,000 miles, at 10 calories of energy for one calorie of food," Cladis said. "We're really oblivious to where the food comes from. It comes from the grocery store." Eating local produce has large-scale effects on the environment and the community. "There's something about adjusting to the rhythms of the seasons, and not just your thermostat," he said.
"Ripe 2005" will be on sale for $22 starting Tuesday in the post office between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and will continue through Friday.
Hill hopes that buyers will see past the nudity and absorb the message, she said. "Sometimes I look at the squirrels and think, 'God, you've got it right,'" she said. "There's an amazing thing that happens when we look at the world around us and align our diet to the changing environment."
