First Earth Day: April 22, 1970

Grinnell College marked the first Earth Day, which began in 1970, with a series of teach-ins, programs, and events, culminating in a campus wide “macro-biotic” dinner, in which students grew, harvested, and cooked all their own organic food. Students and Faculty also created the LEAP program (Local Effluents and Abatement Procedures), which lasted for 3 years, and involved more than 500 students, who enrolled in special classes and collective research projects that studied pollution, energy use, food policy, and recycling on campus and in the local community.

Images:
• S&B cover page, April 24, 1970, showing Prof. Ken Christensen, giving the first of a series of talks and teach-ins that culminated in an address by Paul Erhlich (whose recent book, The Population Bomb [1968] was hugely influential in environmentalist circles).
• Picture of the salad table from the “macro-biotic” dinner to celebrate earth day (Apr. 1970)
• Earth-day issue of the Grinnell student zine, High and Mighty, April 1970.