Public lectures expand our food system horizons

Rethinking the Food System

URI’s fall Honors Colloquium gets the community involved with public lectures and art

Winona LaDuke kicked off the series last month with a presentation on restoring indigenous foodways

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Honors Colloquium kicked o in September with Winona LaDuke, a Native American activist, economist, and author. URI alumna Vanessa Garcia Polanco also presented on becoming an agricultural and food justice advocate. Lectures are held in the university’s Edwards Auditorium and live streamed online on Tuesdays at 7pm through December 13. Visit online for more dates: Web.URI.edu/hc

COMING UP:

October 4: Chef Sean Sherman The (R)evolution of Indigenous Food Systems of North

October 11: Ashanté M. Reese Black Food, Black Liberation: Thinking, Writing, and Living Beyond Black

October 18: Diana Garvin Kitchen Rebellion: Food Under Italian Facism and Everyday Resistance

October 25: Saru Jayaraman Labor and the Food System

This semester, University of Rhode Island (URI) honors students are getting a crash course in food systems – and, the best part is, anyone can join in. This year’s URI Honors Colloquium, titled “Just Good Food: Creating Equitable, Sustainable, and Resilient Food Systems,” brings a diverse lineup of guest speakers to campus to discuss topics ranging from industrial agriculture to racism in the food system and food justice.

Faculty coordinators Marta Gomez-Chiarri and John Taylor spent about a year working on the speaker lineup, which includes experts from all over the country. Gomez-Chiarri is a professor of fisheries and an expert in aquaculture, and Taylor is a professor of sciences who focuses on urban agriculture. “The hope is that we can bring the lessons that are global and national and apply them within the local community, and we are fortunate to have had some of Rhode Island’s food system leaders partner with us to help put this together,” Gomez-Chiarri says.

One of the themes that unites the various topics discussed during the colloquium is the complexity of food systems. “We want to make visible the challenges food systems face, particularly under the dominant corporate food regime and systems for distribution, processing, and even consumption,” says Taylor. “But we want to end the colloquium on a more hopeful note in terms of making systems more sustainable,

Faculty coordinator Marta Gomez-Chiarri Faculty coordinator John Taylor

resilient, and equitable.”

Bringing together speakers including indigenous chefs, a professor of African diaspora studies, agricultural experts, and more, the series deliberately casts a wide net to encompass every facet of the topic. “The food system is not just about sustaining the body – it’s also about sustaining cultures,” Taylor says. “And so there is a real critical emphasis in the colloquium, and also in the honors course that complements it, on the relationship between culture and the food system.”

Gomez-Chiarri and Taylor are also working with URI dining services director Pierre St-Germain to increase the amount of locally grown and campus-grown food served in the dining halls.

In addition to the lectures, Rhode Island Food Policy Council is hosting a photo contest themed around di erent aspects of the state’s food system, and the university’s art department is presenting an exhibit titled “Some Food We Could Not Eat,” featuring work by Kamari Carter, Jennie Maydew, and Zoe Scruggs.

Held annually since 1963, URI’s Honors Colloquium plays an important role on campus. “It provides a sense of community and brings different disciplines together,” Gomez-Chiarri says. “It gets a conversation going on interesting subjects.”