A collaboration between The Sustainable Food Initiative, the Berkeley Haas Center for Responsible Business, and the Edible Schoolyard Project
Join Live: Wednesday evenings, beginning January 23, 2019 6:10 – 8:00 pm PT
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Edible Education 101: Spring 2019
Dancing with Systems
People who are raised in the industrial world and who get enthused about systems thinking are likely to make a terrible mistake.
Food Source Chapter One
What is meant by a food system? Please review these trends and interconnections.
Climate Change and Food Systems Final Report – Pages 35-39
Applying a Food Systems Perspective to Climate Change, Climate Change Food Systems
I Trust Cows More Than I Trust Chemists
An interview with Joan Gussow
Review the website: Foodprint.org
The Surprising Healing Qualities … of Dirt
A doctor discovers exposure to healthy farm soil holds keys to healthy bodies.
The Curious Case of the Antidepressant, Anti-Anxiety Backyard Garden
Whether it’s microbes in the dirt or fresh air—or both—researchers do know this: Gardening is strong medicine.
Reshaping agriculture for nutrition and health (Chapters 1 and 2)
The fundamental purpose of agriculture is not just to produce food and raw materials, but also to grow healthy, well-nourished people. One of the sector’s most important tasks then is to provide food of sufficient quantity and quality to feed and nourish the world’s population sustainably so that all people can lead healthy, productive lives.
The farm bill drove me insane by Marion Nestle
America’s top nutrition thinker tried to unpack the most important food law. It was a mistake.
What is the Farm Bill
The farm bill is an omnibus, multi-year law that governs an array of agricultural and food programs. Titles in the most recent farm bill encompassed farm commodity price and income supports, agricultural conservation, farm credit, trade, research, rural development, bioenergy, foreign food aid, and domestic nutrition assistance.
Despite Small Wins, the New Farm Bill is a Failure of Imagination
Maintaining the status quo in the farm bill might feel like a victory to some, but long-time farm bill expert Dan Imhoff says it still won’t support the kinds of agriculture we need most as the climate warms.
The Tipping Equation
At restaurants across America, servers calculate how far is too far, weighing harassing behavior against the tips they need to make a living wage.
Is Seed to Table the Next Big Trend?
Starting in the late fall and continuing through the winter, when gardens are dormant, the seed industry blossoms. So when I heard about another seed company — launched by no less than star chef Dan Barber of New York’s celebrated Blue Hill at Stone Barns — my first thought was: Do we need another one?
Healthy to eat, unhealthy to grow: Strawberries embody the contradictions of California agriculture
Agricultural abundance is a pillar of the California dream. In 2016 the state turned out more than US$45 billion worth of meat, milk and crops.
Strawberry Fields Forever?
When Soil Muddies Sustainability
Wendell Berry’s The Unsettling of America
From: Berry, Wendell. The Unsettling of America; Culture & Agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books: 1977.
The Soil Story
Please watch a short educational video
Ten Things to Know about California’s Iconic Chez Panisse
Amanda Marsalis, photographer/director, explores the world of Chez Panisse during a photo shoot for Edible Schoolyard Project, the chef and activist Alice Waters’s one-acre garden at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley.
Epitaph to a Peach, LA Times, Mas Masumoto
This season we are seeing not only the death of a peach variety but also the continuing death of the family farmer; the gradual extinction of a breed and a livelihood, a fruit no longer valued and a way of life no longer valid. Along with these perished our window into a world where hard work was honestly rewarding, a labor that truly produced life and gave it a flavor.
Our Best Food Justice Stories of 2018
From Black churches working with farmers to #Metoo change agents and fast food worker organizers, here are the stories that brought justice to the forefront of our reporting this year.
Why We Can’t Talk About Race in Food
Writers shine a light on relentless, coordinated efforts by internet trolls to silence race analysis in food writing.
Dining in the Era of Kaepernick
Is dining the final frontier of American racism? This chef says yes.
E64: Toronto Truths (W/ Foodies of Colour)
Producer TK Matunda sits down with four Foodies of Colour to unpack what’s going on in Toronto’s food scene.
E58: Erasing Black Barbecue (W/ Johnny Walker, Adrian Miller, Daniel Vaughn, and Brent & Juan Reaves)
Over the past several years, joints like Franklin Barbecue in Austin have commandeered the barbecue narrative, and mainstream food media have fallen over themselves to give Aaron Franklin and Central Texas pitmasters like him their spotlight — largely ignoring the regional diversity of barbecue in Texas (and across the South) and ultimately erasing the Black and Brown folks who created it and built its legacy.
E59: Tikka Masala is a Scam (W/ Ahmed Ali Akbar)
Soleil sits down with podcast producer Ahmed Ali Akbar (of See Something, Say Something fame) to talk all about Pakistani food: what makes it unique, why it often shares menu space with popular Indian-ish dishes like chicken tikka masala, and where to find it.
I’m a Black Food Writer. Here’s Why We Need More Like Me
On the power of representation, and its ability to illuminate a shared history.
Michael Twitty’s Jacque Pepin Lecture
The Cooking Gene is about my search for Michael Twitty’s food roots and family routes during the first 250 odd years of American history.
Cook the Farm Podcast
Collection of 5 short “episodes” from Anna Tasca Lanza School
Course syllabus as of January 13, 2019. Subject to change
Brief Course Overview
This uniquely UC Berkeley course, now in its eighth year, explores the future of food, its diverse systems and movements. Edible Education 101 is a weekly lecture series that brings renowned experts—leading academics and practitioners—to campus to share their visions, research, and experiences about food and its critical role in our culture, well-being and survival.
The food system is a complex web of interconnected relationships and disciplines. It is also estimated to be at least a $12 trillion dollar business globally. The way food tastes, is produced, distributed and eaten has everything to do with our personal, public and planetary health and sustainability. Edible Education 101 reveals the systematic links between agroecology, agronomy, anthropology, biology, business, cooking, economics, nutrition, philosophy, policy, sociology, technology and the arts. Past lecture topics have included organic agriculture, school lunch reform, food safety, hunger and food security, global inequities in food, chef-seed breeder collaborations, urban agriculture, food sovereignty, and local food economies.
This course is different each year it is offered, keeping the content fresh and unique. It is a special co-creation of the faculty, student learners, and distinguished guests who bring their perspectives and passions to the course in ways intended to inform and inspire you.
Course Organizers
William Rosenzweig is a Fellow at the Institute for Business and Social Impact at Berkeley Haas. In 1990, Will served as founding CEO of The Republic of Tea and has had a prolific career as an entrepreneur cultivating early-stage companies focused on health and sustainability. He is the recipient of the 2010 Oslo Business for Peace Award and was named one of seven people shaping the future of food by Bon Appetit magazine.
Alice Waters is a 1967 graduate of UC Berkeley and the founder of Chez Panisse and The Edible Schoolyard Project. She is respected as one of the most influential people in the world of food in the past 50 years and is a recipient of many honors including the 2014 National Humanities Medal, presented by President Obama.