ESA showcases local environmental efforts
Clean living · Students visited booths tabled by organizations selling products that strive to be environmentally conscious. No Tox Life was at the event selling vegan handcrafted skincare products. – Elyse Wang | Daily Trojan
The Environmental Student Assembly hosted its fall kickoff event, “In Your Backyard,” Saturday to raise awareness about environmental efforts in the community.
The event, which took place in McCarthy Quad, lasted from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. and showcased a variety of speakers, from faculty and student groups to local non-governmental organizations.
“In Your Backyard” featured two faculty guest speakers — Professor Robert Perry and Professor Ed Avol. Perry, a professor of urban plant ecology at the School of Architecture, spoke to students about gardening in semi-arid environments. Avol, a professor in the Department of Preventative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, talked about the effects of automotive pollution on respiratory health.
Avol urged students to take charge of the future of the environment.
“We’ve seen, by studying children growing up in California over the last 20 years, that as the air has gotten cleaner … children’s health has improved,” Avol said. “That says that doing something makes a difference and makes a difference in your lifetime.”
Students were able to enjoy music by Adventure Band, formerly known as The Neighbors, as well as free food provided by Amazebowls, Chichen Itza, Azla Vegan and Border Grill. Chichen Itza and Azla Vegan are both housed inside Mercado La Paloma, a community marketplace and food court located near USC on Grand Avenue.
“Mercado La Paloma is a very unique space,” ESA Executive Director Ahlia Bethea said. “There’s delicious food, they have an amazing space for you to do your work [and] just hang out, and you can rent spaces back there for film screenings — it’s a really valuable resource that’s filled with culture.”
Students also had the opportunity to visit booths set up by organizations like the Fisher Museum of Art, whose upcoming environmentally conscious exhibits “Gyre: The Plastic Ocean” and “Cynthia Minet: Beast of Burden” are scheduled to open Sept. 2. Other groups included No Tox Life, which sells vegan handcrafted skincare products and Community Service Unlimited Inc., a nonprofit that promotes urban farming and food justice.
“The whole purpose behind the event was to really bring local issues to students’ doorsteps,” Bethea said. “They can just stop for some good food and hear speakers talk to them about actual issues going on a couple steps away from campus and even on this campus.”