Lecture series focuses on food equity, sustainability
The University of Rhode Island’s Fall 2022 Honors Colloquium will focus on food, food insecurity and equity-based solutions to problems within the food industry.
This semester’s edition of the annual series will be entitled “Just Good Food: Creating Equitable, Sustainable, and Resilient Food Systems” and will last from Sept. 27 to Dec. 13. Through the lectures, students and community members will learn about multiple concepts, including food justice, labor within the food system and using food as a means of solidarity.
“They’re going to look at food deserts, they’re going to look at agricultural growing practices,” Anna Blake, URI’s honors program coordinator, said. “We’re going to have people that are policymakers, farmers and chefs.”
Relevance in current events and issues is prominent in the decision making for what the colloquium will be about. On a global spectrum, climate change and the need to feed billions of people will be addressed in the nighttime public lectures and honors class.
One of this year’s colloquium organizers, John Taylor, referenced that the United Nations has the goal of feeding a population of about 10 billion people sustainably by 2050. Feeding sustainably involves providing and cultivating food that is both healthy for humans and beneficial to environmental conservation. In order to make this achievement possible, humanity needs to understand the process of creating the equitable and resilient food systems that the colloquium is informing about.
Director of the Honors Program Karen de Bruin said she is thrilled about this year’s colloquium subject.
“Climate change mitigation and thinking about climate change is so essential right now and it’s affecting our food systems across the world,” de Bruin said.
The colloquium will also be connecting with the community and farms for not only the honors class, but the public lectures. Matunuck Oyster Bar and the Free Farmers Market are just a few of the local organizations that will be highlighted in the colloquium for their efforts regarding food sustainability and production.
Taylor explained that Rhode Island is one of the few states that hopes to succeed with a food plan in the future, which involves “mapping out a way forward to a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable food system” including trying to have Rhode Island self-produce more of the food that is eaten within the state.
“We will be taking a look at how some of the more general lessons, or ideas that were introduced in the colloquium can actually be applied here in Rhode Island,” Taylor said.
The honors colloquium class for honors students will take an even closer look at food systems globally and the domino effect throughout the world in relation to food and its production.
“We do have all these new disturbances just because of how interconnected suppliers and consumers are across the globe. So something that’s happening in Ukraine, for instance, can affect the availability and the price of flour in the United States,” Taylor said.
The guest speakers for the Tuesday night lectures invite a wide array of perspectives into the colloquium. URI alumna Vanessa Garcia Polanco, who works with agriculture and climate stakeholders, will be discussing food and agricultural justice.
The variety of topics is broad, from a lecture about the (re)evolution of Indengious food systems, to kitchen resistance under Italian facism.
Tuesday night colloquium lectures take place at 7 p.m. and are located at Edwards Hall on campus. The lectures are free of charge and can be watched on the URI honors program YouTube channel.