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I was recently at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) for the annual Menus of Change Conference.
And I want to share something I’ve been thinking about lately. Two very important recognitions have been announced over the past months, and they caught my eye because they indicate to me that we’re actually seeing food system transformation happen in real time.
The first happened just last week, when the Culinary Institute’s own Rupa Bhattacharya and Roshara Sanders—the CIA’s first Black woman culinary professor—were named by Food & Wine Magazine as two of their 2024 Game Changers, which recognizes individuals and companies who are changing the future of cooking, dining, and drinking. At the CIA, Rupa and Roshara are updating the culinary curricula to encourage a shift in “the way diversity is seen,” Rupa told Food & Wine.
During an interview I had with Rupa on the Food Talk podcast last year, she said, “Essentially what the Culinary Institute of America does is we lead the restaurant industry in terms of sustainability, nutrition, and public health, and big ideas, and food—all through a lens of empathy, humanity and flavor.” It boils down to, as she said, figuring out “ways to make the world better with food.”
Twenty, ten, or even five years ago, leaders in food and agriculture were not quite talking in this way. Those leaders looked and sounded very different from many of the emerging leaders we’re seeing today, who run non-profits or restaurants or farms. We’re seeing younger folks; people who come to leadership through openness and inclusivity; folks who approach food and agriculture with different perspectives than previous generations—because they’re coming from different backgrounds! It’s really important to have those diverse voices.
The second award I was excited to hear about is the World Food Prize, which was awarded to two people I’ve admired my whole career: Geoffrey Hawtin and Cary Fowler. According to the World Food Prize Foundation, they were recognized for their leadership “in preserving and protecting the world’s heritage of crop biodiversity and mobilizing this critical resource to defend against threats to global food security.”
Over the past 50 years, the Foundation explains, “their combined efforts as researchers, policy advisors, thought leaders and advocates have succeeded in engaging governments, scientists, farmers, and civil society towards the conservation of over 6,000 species of crops and culturally important plants.”
To be clear, Geoffrey and Cary—who now serves as U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security—are older white men in their 70s. And I’m honored to know them both. What I appreciate is how they recognize the ways food systems can only thrive with diversity: Diversity of crops, diversity of thought, and an understanding that cultural diversity is just as important as diversity on our plates and in our bowls.
This is something I think we all need to keep in mind when we think about food and agriculture systems. Whether we’re talking about terrestrial agriculture or blue foods, we can only transform the food system for the better when we have a diversity of people, innovations, practices, and technologies.
I want to thank the Culinary Institute of America for putting together the Menus of Change Conference, and for bringing people together to think about ways we can set countries, companies, and consumers on a healthier, more equitable, and more resilient path forward.
The CIA’s Green Campus Initiative is doing really cool work promoting sustainable ag, reducing waste and boosting food recovery initiatives, and managing resources like compost and electricity.
The folks studying at the CIA are among the future leaders of the food system, and it’s so heartening to see them approach the future of food from such a holistic lens.
And it’s so powerful when culinary professionals are able to translate that knowledge back into the kitchen, too: An impressive 91 percent of students there believe chefs should be knowledgeable about the environmental impact of their ingredients, for example, according to research a couple years ago.
So many other culinary education and food studies programs are guiding the next generation of leaders to think deeply about human and planetary health, too.
Culinary schools across the continent, from Johnson and Wales University to the Institute of Culinary Education, are bolstering their coursework around sustainability. Other locally rooted institutions like Chatham University, Walla Walla Community College, and Cascade Culinary Institute are teaching food studies and farm-to-fork values in hands-on ways. I also want to commend the Toronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Studies in Food Security, which is helping advance conversations around community food sovereignty.
I’ve also been so heartened by Food Tank partnerships with universities like Huston-Tillotson University, Emory University, Spelman College, Duke University’s World Food Policy Center, Tufts University, and educators from so many more institutions this year to convene discussions surrounding the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. The academic leaders who are part of Food Tank’s Academic Working Group represent such a wide range of disciplines and areas of expertise, too.
Of course, you don’t need to be enrolled in a university program to learn what it takes to become a food system leader! Online resources, like the James Beard Foundation’s Chef Bootcamp for Policy and Change and the Rodale Institute, offer robust education programs. Books and documentaries, like those on Food Tank’s lists, have the potential to reshape our relationships with food and the planet.
There are so many starting points. How has learning about the food system helped you become a stronger food leader? What books, films, podcasts, articles, and more are guiding you? Email me at [email protected] with your stories and recommendations. I look forward to chatting with you!
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Photo courtesy of Louis Hansel, Unsplash
