Happy birthday, Marion Nestle!
At Climate Week NYC, we held a 90th birthday celebration to honor the legendary food policy expert, writer, thinker, and Professor Emerita of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University.
As part of the evening, Marion was awarded the Rodale Institute Organic Stewardship Award for Lifetime Achievement in Education.
“Marion really is a totally badass who, for decades, has told some of the most powerful industries in the world exactly what they didn’t want her to say, and she said it loudly—with footnotes,” says Renée Baran, Dean of Education at the Rodale Institute.
The evening was hosted by Food Tank, New York University, and Rodale Institute. You can watch the livestream on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.
Throughout the event, Marion’s food system friends and colleagues raised a toast:
“Marion is a changemaker. Marion is a force of nature. … She has taught us how to think about food, argue about food, question and challenge food, and how to eat.”
— Jennifer Berg, Clinical Professor and Department Chair of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University
“(Food) is sociology, agriculture, history, and community, but above all, it’s politics. Today it’s obvious, but 30 years ago, it certainly was not. … It’s because of Marion that we have a new generation of food people.”
— Ruth Reichl, Author and Former Editor in Chief of Gourmet
“Marion can walk into a supermarket and see an entire political economy. Marion’s voice is needed now more than ever.”
— Frances Moore Lappé, Author and Co-Founder of the Small Planet Institute
“Marion, as we say in the business, gives a good quote…but she also tells the truth.”
— Kim Severson, National Food Culture Reporter at The New York Times
“Marion occupies a place no one else does in our understanding of the world. Years ago I called her matchlessly lucid, and she hasn’t changed a bit.”
— Corby Kummer, Executive Director of Food & Society at the Aspen Institute, Senior Editor at The Atlantic, and Senior Lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science
“Marion has never been interested in telling people what they want to hear. She asks the uncomfortable questions. She follows the money. She looks at who has power, who doesn’t, and why. And she has spent decades helping all of us understand that food is never just about what is on our plates.”
— Danielle Nierenberg, President of Food Tank
Explore the entire Food Tank event schedule during Climate Week NYC 2026, and live-stream every Summit on FoodTank.com and Food Tank’s YouTube channel.
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Photo by Ryan Rose for Food Tank.
