Presenting The Food & Ideas Gathering Seminar Series!
10/4/2023Hi everyone,
I'm excited to announce that the FS Graduate Program and Food Systems Research Center are teaming up to offer a new food systems seminar series, which we are calling The Food & Ideas Gathering (or FIG) seminar. The goal of these seminars is to foster research collaboration, create community, and engage in conversation about transdisciplinary approaches to issues and solutions within the food system. We intend to have three seminars in the fall – one in October, one in November, and one in December with the overarching theme of "Climate Change and Food Systems." The seminars will be 1.5 hours with 30 minutes for presentation, 30 minutes for questions, and 30 minutes for snacks and discussion.
The first seminar is happening on Friday, October 20 at 2:15pm in Hills 102, with snacks and informal gathering happening around 3pm in Hills 122 (the café space down the hall). Thanks to Pablo Bose for kicking things off with a presentation and discussion on:
Starting Over Again…and Again: Climate Change and Refugee Agriculture
Refugee agriculture programs have been flourishing across the US for over a decade, helping to connect new arrivals to their new homes in many productive and innovative ways. Refugee farmers have adapted their existing skills and knowledge to different climates, soils and conditions while creating opportunities to sell their produce, grown culturally important crops, and strengthen their families' and communities' food security. Vermont has one of the oldest and most successful of these programs, New Farms for New Americans, which has farmed just over ten acres in two sites in the Intervale and Winooski Valley Park District since 2009. With strong relationships with local food organizations, the program has provided important support for newcomers to Vermont to access foods that they might otherwise not be able to obtain. Yet the land on which these farmers grow has shown itself to be particularly vulnerable to conditions well out of their control, especially extreme weather events that have increased in frequency and intensity as climate change manifests its effects more clearly. In 2011 and again in 2023, severe flooding wiped out the fields, crops and growing season for refugee farmers in Vermont. They, like many others in this state and across the country and the world, are left asking how best they can rebuild – and where? In this brief presentation I will discuss some of the challenges and opportunities in this moment for programs like New Farms for New Americans – thinking not just about rebuilding in terms of production and capacity, but with regard to broader questions on equity, sustainability and food justice.
We are looking forward to these seminars and hope you can join us! Please share with your networks.
Best,
Allison
Allison Spain [she/her]
Food Systems Graduate Education & Research Programs Coordinator
University of Vermont
allison.spain@uvm.edu
802.656.2042
