On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies and the Student Health and Counseling Services inside the WELL invited multimedia artist, writer, filmmaker and photographer Douglas Gayeton to be a guest speaker at the fifth annual Food Day.

Gayeton spoke about the project Lexicon of Sustainability, a crowd-source project focused on improving the food systems in the U.S.

Orn Bodvarsson, Dean of SSIS, introduced Gayeton and his accomplishments.

“A significant component of the project and a big reason we invited him to come is food,” Bodvarsson said.

Gayeton said 40 percent of the food grown in this country doesn’t get eaten. He spoke about different farming systems, sustainability, climate fatigue and how culture affects consumer buying habits.

“You can’t talk about food without talking about culture,” Gayeton said. “Consumers have a great impact on the food system.”

Environmental transfer student Chelsea Callahan was said she wanted to hear Gayeton speak about his project and efforts.

“Personally, I’m interested in small scale farming for my future,” Callahan said. “I’m pretty excited about small scale farming, there’s a lot of sources that lot of people in my age range are not yet knowledgeable about.”