Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health Seminar

Winter 2021

Food Supply Chains During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, images of dumped milk and plowed-under crops, empty grocery store shelves, and lengthy food bank lines shocked the nation. While there are no nationwide shortages of food, inventory and availability of various staples have been affected, and food prices and food insecurity are on the rise, especially impacting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Many food system laborers are from BIPOC communities and continue to be adversely affected as farmworkers, meat plant workers, and long distance truckers face compromised work environments. The food service industry has been crippled, and food packaging and distribution has shifted to accommodate household servings instead of restaurant and bulk orders.

“Food supply chains” have now become part of everyday conversations as the stress of the pandemic raises questions about the sustainability, resilience, and inequities of our food system. Food supply chains include the sectors and labor supporting food production, processing, transportation, distribution, and access. Linear representations of supply chains often belie the extended, complicated realities of interconnected national and global food systems. As food supply chains continue to be impacted by COVID-19 among other global challenges, it is essential to learn about opportunities to increase sustainability, resilience, and equity. This winter seminar brings a systems perspective to these questions and discussion.

• Speaker Schedule (pdf)

Recorded Sessions

Autumn 2020

Growing Resilience and Equity: Food Systems Amid the Dual Pandemics of COVID-19 and Systemic Racism

• Seminar Schedule (PDF)

Recorded Sessions

• Growing a More Sustainable, Equitable Future for Communities of Color: The Black Farmer’s Collective and Yes Farm – Presented November 10, 2020. Director Ray Williams and Program Manager Hannah Wilson from Yes Farm with the Black Farmers Collective
• Why Voting Matters to Food Systems – Presented November 3, 2020. Navina Khanna, Director of HEAL Food Alliance
• Codeveloping Culturally Relevant Messages for Farmworker Safety and Health in the COVID-19 Pandemic Project – Presented October 27, 2020. Elizabeth Torres, Research and Project Coordinator for El Proyecto Bienestar (EPB) and Research Coordinator, Northwest Communities Education Center/Radio KDNA, and PNASH, UW 
• Examining the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Systems, Food Security, and Food Access in Washington State – Presented October 20, 2020. Adam Drewnowski, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of Nutritional Sciences Program and Center for Public Health Nutrition, UW 
• Food Systems Shock and Stresses and the Need for Food Systems Analysts: the IFSTAL Response – Presented October 13, 2020. John Ingram, Leader of Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching & Learning (IFSTAL) and Associate Professor, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
• Intersections of Racial Equity and Food System Resilience – Presented October 6, 2020. Yona Sipos, Assistant Teaching Professor, Nutritional Sciences Program and Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Core Faculty for Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health, UW

Winter 2020

Food Systems in the Age of Climate Change

• Seminar Schedule (PDF)

Recorded Sessions

• Food on Campus: UW Sustainability Plans and Initiatives – Presented on March 3, 2020. Project and Purchasing Specialist Casey Crane and Assistant Director for Residential Life Clive Pursehouse, UW.
• Closing the Loop: Regenerative Animal Agriculture and Meat – Presented February 25, 2020. Nicole Witham, the statewide coordinator for the WSU Food Systems Program (moderator); Matthew Cox from Green Bow Farm in Ellensburg, WA; Mericos Rhodes from Spoon Full Farm in Thorp, WA; David Haakensen from Jubilee Farm in Carnation, WA
• Growing for Change: Agricultural Adaptions for Urban to Rural Systems – Presented February 18, 2020. David Montgomery, Earth and Space Sciences, UW; Julie Johnson, Landscape Architecture, UW; and Yolimar Rivera Vazquez, Food & Farms Coordinator, Ecotrust
• Labor & Climate: Climate-Related Occupational Impacts on Agricultural Workers – Presented February 4, 2020. Maria Blancas, PNASH Center and Environmental & Forest Sciences at UW.
• From the Ground Up: Climate Impacts of and on our Soils – Presented January 21, 2020. Sarah Collier, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Nutritional Sciences Program, UW; Brittany Johnson, College of the Environment.
• Oceans and Cliate: Understanding Impacts on Aquatic Food Systems –  Presented January 15, 2020. Jan Newton, Applied Physics Laboratory, Washington Ocean Acidification Center, UW
• PNW Food Systems in the Age of Climate Change: Mitigation, Adaptation, and Resilience. Presented January 7, 2020. Jeremy Hess, Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, Global Health, Emergency Medicine, CHanGE, UW

• Autumn 2019 – Food Justice: Intersections of Identity & Place
• Winter 2019 – Aquatic Food Systems, Nutrition, and Health
• Autumn 2018 – Cultivating Sustainable Food Systems to Improve Nutrition, Health, and Equity
• Winter 2018 – Aligning Food Systems with Nutrition and Health
• Autumn 2017 – Water, Food, and Nutrition Security
• Winter 2017 – Food Equity and Population Health
• Autumn 2016 – Feeding Nine Billion: Climate, Nutrition, and Population Health
• Winter 2016 – Food Entrepreneurs
• Autumn 2015 – Food, Culture, and Society
• Winter 2015 – Global Nutrition and Food Justice
• Autumn 2014 – Sustainable Food and Nutrition Security
• Winter 2014 – Marketing Food, Nutrition, and Health