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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014
PAGE 3
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UNIVERSITY
Campus groups spread human trafficking awareness
MCKENNA HARFORD news@kansan.com
Researchers at the Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Initiative (ASHTI) are working to develop a human trafficking prevention model based on what it determines to be risk factors and use it to build strong communities. They hope that it can use this model in other cities and rural areas, as well as internationally.
"Building a rich, resilient community network to draw on is really important," director of ASHTI, Hannah Britton said. "Having a strong community full of healthy communications, great social services those things are vastly important."
ASHTI is currently doing its research in Kansas City because of the regional collaboration with the government, civic organizations, social workers and academia. Kansas City is also unique because of its location in the middle of the city.
"It's a great time to be doing this right here in Kansas City because we are linked in with these wonderful networks that are very focused and determined to make a difference," Britton said.
According to the Polaris Project, which is the leading organization fighting against human trafficking, there were 27 high risk calls in the state of Kansas from January to June last year.
"I think a lot people are unaware that we have contemporary slavery, that it is extreme exploitation," Britton said. "It's happening in the midst of our daily lives."
The Coalition Against Slavery and Trafficking (KU CAST) works to spread awareness on campus, so more work can be done to combat trafficking.
KU CAST junior Susie McClannah said, "It's easy to not think about when you don't see it every day."
Fundraising coordinator of
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, approximately 2.5 million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking at any given time. In Kansas from 2007 to 2013, there were 541 phone calls placed to the crisis hotline run by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. According to the office of the Kansas Attorney general, both Kansas City and Wichita are considered major heaven cities for human trafficking.
By identifying what factors cause a trafficking instance, like poverty and not being able to speak English, ASHTI and KU CAST hope that they can prevent these patterns.
Britton says that often trafficking and exploitation happens right out in the open, but people are often unaware of what modern slavery looks like.
Both KU CAST and ASHTI believe this is important because of the human rights violations, but also because of the growth and evolvement of trafficking.
"It's still around, but it has a different face and way it's
done," ASHTI researcher and graduate student Daniel Alvord said.
McClannahan added that currently the number of enslaved people is at a world high.
In order to help aid victims, ASHTI is also working to build a medical-legal partnership clinic that would provide services to victims. They are also working to develop a graduate level certificate for the study of human trafficking.
"We think of it as three legs of one stool," Britton said. "So now we are actively waiting on funding."
Edited by Jack Feigh
ENVIRONMENT
Alumnus starts sustainable farm after graduation
KATE MILLER news@kansan.com
The idea of becoming a farmer had never crossed the mind of Steven Hallstrom.
As a University alumnus who graduated last May with a degree in environmental studies, Hallstrom was just one step closer to becoming an environmental lawyer.
"Ultimately, what I wanted to do was make some sort of impact on the whole environmental aspect of anything really," Hallstrom said. "Originally, I thought [being a lawyer] was the best way to do that. I really just started to learn more and more [that] that's really not how I wanted to approach what I wanted to do. So then, I decided to trade the desk and suit and tie for the fields and the dirty hands."
Hallstrom is now the owner of Hallstrom Farms, a sustainable agriculture company just outside Lawrence, in Tongianoxie. His property totals 55 acres and Hallstrom is currently farming five acres with the help of his friends and family.
Hallstrom has also created the Community Supported Agriculture program, in which locals from the Lawrence and Kansas City area can purchase bags of fresh fruits and vegetables weekly or seasonally. Full-sized bags can feed a family of four. However, students can also purchase the half-sized bag, offered only in Lawrence. Bags contain seasonal produce, as well as recipes and recommendations on how to cook and prepare the produce. Hallstrom anticipates delivery to begin the first week of May and run through the end of August.
"My hopes are that we get a good year as far as weather," Hallstrom said. "But ultimately I would like to, over the next
two to five years, expand to a much larger operation. This year I'll probably be able to fit about 40 people [on the program]. It would be awesome to be able to provide 100 families with produce."
Although his family has a history of conventional farming, Hallstrom had to educate himself on the methods of sustainable farming during his last year at the University.
"At KU, there's really not a good path you can take to learn anything agricultural," Hallstrom said. "I really had to create my own path and through independent studies, I did a project on sustainable agriculture. In that, I was able to make and prepare a plan for the farm that I'm actually executing now."
Hallstrom explained that his farm is different from conventional agriculture because of the way he grows his crops.
work, his responsibilities will vary from day to day. Harvesting is done in the morning before the sun comes up, and then Hallstrom spends the rest of the day weeding, planting and cultivating.
"Conventional is primarily just corn, soybeans and wheat, and there are also a lot of pesticides and sprays. Sustainable agriculture is really the idea that you are doing exactly the opposite," Hallstrom said. "Instead of focusing on just corn, wheat and soybeans and building up a ridiculous surplus of these things, you produce a wider amount of species to encourage biodiversity and things like that."
His days begin early, as he commutes from Lawrence to the farm in the mornings. Hallstrom explained that due to the seasonal nature of his
True to the nature of sustainable agriculture, Hallstrom Farms grows more than 50 different species of crops, mainly different kinds of potatoes, onions, beans and tomatoes. With such a large number of crops, Hallstrom's days are full of agricultural work.
Hallstrom has recruited volunteers from his time at the University to assist him. One of these volunteers is senior Jacob Suenram, whom Hallstrom met through the dorms. Suenram, who is from McPherson, is also an environmental studies major, and has been assisting Hallstrom since the beginning of the project. Although he has conventional farming experience from when he was younger, Suenram said that Hallstrom Farms is very different from the farm he worked on in the past.
hand, mostly. Just at least from the days I've been out there we've planted probably 4,000 onions and maybe a thousand potatoes."
"The farming I did back then was so much different," Suenram said. "A lot of the planting we do out at Steven's farm is by
Despite the hard labor, Suenram thoroughly enjoys his time out on Hallstrom Farms.
"We've been friends forever — it doesn't even seem like work to it." Suenram said.
Although farming as a profession did not occur to him during his years at the University, Hallstrom now enjoys running his own farm.
"Nobody gets rich farming, but I feel good about what I'm doing." Hallstrom said. "The best part of what I'm doing now is that I am my own boss, so I can really handle what I do however I like. It's nice to have that freedom to determine how I'm going to make my living."
Edited by Cara Winkley
The University of Kansas School of Business
J. A. VICKERS SR. AND ROBERT F. VICKERS SR. MEMORIAL LECTURE SERIES
ERIC MADDOX
Interrogator
U.S. Department of Defense
KU SCHOOL OF BUSINESS The University of Kansas
The Human, Human Rights, and the Humanities
University of Kansas - Kansas Union Events are free and open to the Public
Fifth Annual Mid-America Humanities Conference for Undergraduate and Graduate Student Research
April 3-4,2014
Plenary Events
Thursday, April 3
12:00-1:30 p.m.—Film Screening "Some of My Best Friends are Zionists" and Q&A w/ Bruce Robbins, Director, Jayhawk Room (Lv. 5) (please feel free to bring a brown-bag lunch)
4:00-5:30 p.m.— Keynote Address and 2013-2014 Peace and
Conflict Studies Annual Lecture "Blue Water: Inhumanity in Deep Time"
Bruce Robbins:
Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities,
Department of English and Comparative Literature,
Columbia University
Alderson Auditorium (Lv. 4)
Alderson Auditorium (Lv. 4)
Sponsored by the Humanities and Western Civilization Program A Special Thank You to our Co sponsors.
the Departments of American Studies; English, Germanic Languages and Literatures; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; History of Art, Spanish and Portuguese; Economics; the Program in Jewish Studies, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Hall Center for the Humanities, and the Center for Global and International Studies
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