Princeton Studies Food

11/21/2019

The Princeton Environmental Institute writes to all: Join us as Professor Anu Ramaswami (India Studies, CE, PEI) presents “Sustainable Urban Food Systems and Food Action Planning in the U.S. and India” at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, in Guyot Hall, Room 10. Lunch will be served at noon in the Guyot Atrium.
She will discuss the food action plans being developed in cities worldwide to ensure a more equitable, climate-resilient, healthy and sustainable local food system. Ramaswami, who joined Princeton this year, is the lead investigator of a federally funded effort to develop a scientific process for establishing urban food systems that are less wasteful and environmentally detrimental. This event is free!

11/18/2019

From the piece: Zhiwa Woodbury, an eco-psychologist, believes that we are collectively experiencing climate trauma, of which we are both perpetrators and victims — our assault on the biosphere is an assault on ourselves. Altering habits like how we eat can make people feel more empowered and less overwhelmed, he said, and can shift our relationship with the natural world. After all, the belief that natural resources exist for our heedless exploitation got us to this point in the first place (and made us none the happier). “It makes us feel good that we’re doing something and it gets back to the idea of shared responsibility,” Mr. Woodbury said. “The idea that individuals are powerless only exists because we’ve made them feel powerless.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/sunday-review/depression-climate-change.html

Searching for a cure for my climate crisis grief.

10/04/2019

Chickpea tasting in the Princeton elementary school cafeterias!

Students tasted plain chickpeas, which they seasoned with salt and lemon. Then they tasted roasted chickpeas followed by a savory hummus and a sweet hummus - all prepared in the school cafeteria.

09/30/2019

From the piece: The Chattahoochee River winds through Georgia before joining the Flint River near the Florida state line, and Florida argues its seafood industry — a critical part of its economy — has been crippled by the lack of water coming through the river basin to the coast, largely because of Georgia farmers’ irrigation practices. Florida sued Georgia in order to get it to cap its water use, but Georgia argues such limits would destroy its agricultural economy.

Georgia farmers are pitted against Florida fishers in legal battle over water rights that’s worsening with climate change — and the case may soon be coming to a head.

09/30/2019

From the piece: The political scientist Elinor Ostrom [who] won the Nobel Prize, spent a career identifying the conditions, all over the world, including the developing world, under which groups manage to solve the prisoner’s dilemma by voluntarily creating institutions — rules, norms, practices — that every member benefits from, non-rivalrously and non-excludably. In doing so, Ostrom provided a recipe for how to avoid the prisoner’s dilemma that a public good presents. The ingredients needed are clear: The participants have to agree on who’s in the group; there’s a single set of rules all participants can actually obey; compliance is monitored effectively, with graduated punishments for violation; enforcement and adjudication is affordable; and outside authorities have to allow the participants to obey the rules. Finally, in the long term, the group providing the public good to its members has to be nested in, authorized by higher-level groups. These in turn persist when they can provide themselves a different set of nonexcludable, nonrivalrously consumed, mutually beneficial rules, norms, laws and institutions.

Knowing the answer might force us toward a real solution.

09/25/2019

From the piece: Last fall, in honor of the release of her debut cookbook, Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking, Bonnie Frumkin Morales cooked. Morales’s food is a little Russian, a little American, and very Soviet and Belarusian, an homage to the region where her parents were born before emigrating to the United States in 1980. Lots of preserved fish, like pickled herring in a fur coat and pickles and beets and potatoes and lots and lots of cultured sour cream. I have been to Kachka, her Portland, Oregon, restaurant, two times. If I lived in Portland, I would eat there all the time.

There’s no cure for heartbreak. But Soviet mechanical efficiency and endless pelmeni do help. Some.

09/24/2019

How is your work travel offset?
From the piece: What can you do as an individual? Avoid flying and opt for alternative modes wherever possible. If you do fly, you can work out the CO2 emissions generated by your flight using this calculator, created by German nonprofit Atmosfair.

The Guardian’s carbon calculator works out the emissions on flights from the world’s 100 busiest airports, as well as from selected UK airports

09/19/2019

Scientists forecast a perfect storm mid-century of water shortages, food scarcity, biodiversity collapse and a burgeoning population on the move, all exacerbated by weather extremes of climate change. Now this:

The staggering population loss of 29 percent of North American birds could signal an ecological crisis

09/19/2019

From the piece: The Bake Off is not a smooth buttercream frosting lubricating the ravages of modern capitalism, but a reproach to its very premises. It offers a vision of creativity, ambition, and hard work that holds up the beauty of individual flourishing without extolling ruthless, interpersonal competition.
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/09/great-british-bake-off-baking-show-socialism

The Great British Bake Off isn't just wonderful entertainment. By prizing cooperation over cutthroat competition and solidarity over selfishness, it's also quietly radical.

09/19/2019

From the piece: systems-oriented research framework makes the ERS crucial today because it addresses the interconnectedness of the food system with other aspects of the economy and society. Objective statistical analysis by ERS on topics such as the immigration status of hired crop farmworkers, the costs of foodborne illnesses to consumers who seek medical care and the economic benefits of increasing SNAP (food stamp) benefits is crucial for ensuring the well-being of the country.

Since the 19th century, Americans have benefited from access to rigorous, unbiased statistics about our foodways.

09/18/2019

Lunch and talk: Bridging the Gap between Science and Policy: Tales from a Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, with Ana María Loboguerrero Rodríguez, head of global policy research of the CGIAR Research Program for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security: Monday Sep 30, 2019, 12:15 p.m., 300 Wallace Hall. Open to the public with rsvp to [email protected].

Dr. Ana María Loboguerrero Rodríguez is Head of Global Policy Research of the CGIAR Research Program for Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), based in Cali, Colombia. In this position, she plays a major role in leadership on partnerships and capacity for scaling Climate-Smart Agr...