Events and Speakers

This panel discussion delves into the experiences and insights gleaned from Dr. Nicole Nunoo's research on the collective agency of Black farmer organizers in Virginia. The panel features Mr. Michael Carter Jr of Carter Farms and Africulture and Mr. Thelonius Cook of Mighty Thundercloud Edible Forest. Join us as we explore the stories of resilience, community, and empowerment that have emerged from this remarkable group of individuals. Through their struggles and successes, discover the invaluable lessons that can be applied to fostering social change, equity, and sustainable agriculture not only in Virginia but also beyond. This engaging discussion sheds light on the power of collectivity, the challenges faced by Black farmers, and the enduring implications of their efforts on the agricultural landscape. Don't miss the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the transformative potential inherent in collective action and community-driven initiatives.

This session focuses on how climate change affects our food system and the steps municipalities can take to address these challenges, with a focus on the New River Valley in Southwest Virginia. The talk will feature Kasey Owen's community-based research focusing on how food systems and municipal stakeholders perceive and plan for climate resilience in the local food system. Carol Davis, Sustainability Manager for the Town of Blacksburg, with whom Kasey worked, will provide introductory framing on the municipal climate risk assessment which served as the impetus for Kasey's work. The end of the session will include Q&A with audience members to explore connections more broadly.

Rhythms of the Land is a multimedia documentary film directed by Dr. Gail P. Myers, cultural anthropologist, Farmer, & co-founder of Farms to Grow, Inc. This film is a valentine to generations of Black farmers in the United States from the enslavement period to the present, whose intense love of the land and dedication to community enabled them to survive against overwhelming odds.

How might universities use their institutional procurement power to support sustainability goals while also supporting regional food systems and advancing food equity and justice? One answer might be that it is a “very long game” and takes pounds of persistence and patience by many passionate individuals who bring minds, hearts, and organizations together to work for common cause. You will learn about how a unique partnership between the UVA Sustainable Food Collaborative, Aramark/UVA Dine, 4P Foods, Local Food Hub, and Carter Farms & Africulture, along with funding from the UVA Sustainability Committee, is pushing and stretching the concept of a bottom-line maximizing profit economical food supply chain into a something different – a more value-driven, relation-building proposition that is seeking to address the historical impacts of racism by supporting and working with BIPOC farmers to meet their needs, reduce barriers, and create advantages for participating in the university institutional food supply chain. Still in its very early stages, the initiative is already bearing fruit. Members of the partnership will share the vision and goal, challenges they’ve encountered, and innovations and strategies to keep the initiative moving forward.

Join for two days of celebrating culture through stories and seeds. A Seed and Story Circle will be offered with the Indigenous Friendship Garden, followed by the Virginia Tech Spring Powpow the next day.

Join us in celebrating seeds as ancestral gifts of nutrition and relatedness. Learn about traditional seed saving, culinary arts, crafting possibilities, and our deep connection to seeds as relatives. All are welcome to attend! Click here to find more information.

Over the past decade, the impact of poor access to food on student wellbeing and academic performance has become a growing concern at institutions of higher education across the U.S. This presentation will explore the results from the 2021 food access survey at Virginia Tech. The survey was sent to 35,337 undergraduate and graduate students on all university campuses and built on a prior food access study completed in 2019, with additional questions covering student wellbeing and housing security. A total of 2,116 complete responses were received, for a 6% response rate. This presentation will explore the important socio demographic correlates of food insecurity and interpret these findings through the lens of 176 written comments provided by students. Recommendations for further enhancing student awareness and access to food, housing, and mental health services will be discussed.

The final Women and Gender in International Development Discussion Spring 2023 Series event is happening on Thursday, April 13, 2023, at 12:30-2:00 pm (EST) featuring acclaimed culinary author and journalist, Nina Mukerjee Furstenau! The title of her talk is “Food, gender, and identity in a global context: an inter-disciplinary conversation with acclaimed culinary writer Nina Mukerjee Furstenau.” This event will be hosted in a panel format featuring Nina Mukerjee Furstenau and four faculty members from different divisions of Virginia Tech as panelists. The guest speaker and panelists will facilitate a discussion on the relationship between food and food preparation on one hand, and gender and cultural identity on the other.

Join us for this conversation with Nina Mukerjee Furstenau to explore food through themes of history, culture, and community. Nina Mukerjee Furstenau is a celebrated journalist, author, and editor of the FoodStory book series. She was a Fulbright Global research scholar, is on the board of directors for Media for Change, and has won the MFK Fisher Book Award, the Grand Prize Award for Culture/Culinary Writing from Les Dames d'Escoffier International, and a Kansas Notable Book award.

Celebrate the opening of our new office and conference space. Meet our team, fellows, and community members. All are welcome to join us for lunch and conversation.

The Friends of the Indigenous Friendship Garden and partners invite you to join special guest Mohawk Chef Dave Smoke-McCluskey and the rest of the garden family to learn about gifts the land give us for staying healthy and for healing during winter months. This cooking event will be focused on evergreen and bone broths with other gifts from the land for winter wellness. All are welcome to attend. Please consider bringing a reusable plate, bowl, cup, and utensils to help us lower our impact on the Land.

In this presentation, Dr. Christie will share how an approach she developed as a PhD student of geography to explore everyday life and nature/society relations in central Mexico has been useful in work with small-holder farmers in Uganda and Ethiopia. She draws on feminist political ecology as a framework, using ethnographic and participatory research methods including hand-drawn mapping, journaling, and a milk allocation game. Focusing on food and kitchenspace has served to explore issues as diverse as aflatoxins and food safety in Uganda and invasive weeds and integrated pest management in Ethiopia. In this presentation she will share her research from the three countries, including reflections on the process, and key findings that emerge such as cultural resistance and adaptation to climate change literally in women’s hands and the importance of food for building and maintaining community social networks.

The Friends of the Indigenous Friendship Garden, the VT Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation, and VT Food Studies invite you to celebrate the return of our beautiful skunk cabbage and our beaver neighbors. We will discuss how beavers are models of community vision and transformation as well as stewards of clean water and environmental diversity. We will also forage gifts from the Land that support winter wellness in preparation for an upcoming community cooking demonstration.

In this session, Director of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition, Mary Sketch Bryant, will discuss the role of formal and informal networks in fostering innovation and sparking progress. The presentation will highlight the past, present, and future work and aspirations of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition, a broad, collaborative network that improves and expands soil health across all of Virginia’s landscapes. You will learn about how diverse stakeholders are working together across the state to enhance soil health for environmental, economic, and community wellbeing. There will be ample time for questions and interactive discussion.

Featuring three sisters-based dishes from the VT Indigenous Friendship Garden created by Mohawk chef Dave Smoke-McCluskey, Dr. Mae Hey, and the rest of the garden family.

An interdisciplinary conversation on the technical, socio-political, and policy tensions of cellular, animal, and plant-based proteins

Join Mowhawk Chef Dave Smoke-McCluskey, Peruvian Chef Krysia Lycette Villon, Indigenous Friendship Garden Pitmaster Nino Ripepi, Garden Caretaker Mae Hey, and the rest of the community in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and Indigenous Cultures across the Americas. Join for food, music, and open discussion.

What cultural work does the label artisanal do? What people, sites, and processes does it "elevate" or ignore, and with what consequences? Taking processed meats and home canning as examples, this presentation explores how the appellations craft and artisanal can bolster hierarchies framed in terms of gender, class, and race. Attending to a wider range of production contexts compels us to consider intersections of tacit knowledge, physical dexterity, social savvy, and sensory power that occur outside the abattoir or atelier.

Dr. Andrew Smolski and Dr. Michael Schulman from North Carolina State University share their research findings about factors that contribute to black farmer sustainable livelihoods.

Tyson Sampson, a tribally enrolled member of the EBCI (ᎠᏳᏫᏯ ᎨᏯᏔᎯᎤᏁᏉᎳᏗᏍᎩ), will be joining us at the Virginia Tech Catawba Sustainability Center to lead an Original People’s forest visit. Tyson has been co-researching/collaborating/sharing/educating about harvesting and processing regional flora for 21 years and will introduce you to Original People’s woodland edible and medicinal species, both wild-grown and propagated in a forest farming setting. They will share useful nomenclature of the species we encounter along with lived experience, correlating uses, and approaches to stewardship and cultivation.

In an increasingly technical world, it is important that students learn the basics of computer science and data science. And while this need has increased, the resources to teach these skills are not equally dispersed in the United States. Furthermore, in many of the CS and data science curriculum, important cultural context is missing that may improve students ability to relate to the material and retain it. In this presentation, Dr. Posadas will discuss different programs that aim to bridge this gap including the Data Science for Public Good, which invites underrepresented minorities to Virginia Tech for the summer to work on agricultural related data science projects and the non-profit Katabasis who co-design programming games using an agricultural context to introduce young students in rural North Carolina to computer science basics.

The University of Kentucky Food Connection is an applied food systems center that serves farmers, food producers, students, and community members by supporting the development of vibrant and sustainable food systems on the UK campus and across Kentucky. Rooted in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at UK, the Food Connection supports their land-grant mission through transdisciplinary education, high-impact service and outreach, and grounded research on regional and regenerative farming and food systems. Please join us for an engaging overview and discussion about their areas of work and community partnerships that are central in cultivating sustainable food possibilities from farmgate to kitchenplate.

Dr. Bovay reviews the empirical economic literature on food safety, reputation, and regulation.

A five-part series running January to May 2022. Registration is now closed.

A cooking demonstration featuring preserved, foraged, and fished foods, as well as demos on fishing pole and traditional net making with Rick Rudd and Victoria Ferguson.

Dr. Kelinsky-Jones discusses the social science of agroecology by focusing on both policy for agroecology and agroecology for policy

Come hear from Center Fellow Dr. Jacob Lahne about using sensory-science methodologies to understand the sensory attributes of foods produced in Virginia and beyond.

Chef Dave prepares both sweet and savory tómales from the three sisters to show how they are versatile vehicles for flavor, as well as pastured duck.

Come hear from Center Fellows, Eric Bendfeldt and Mary Sketch Bryant, sharing about the 4 The Soil Awareness Initiative as a message, metaphor, and movement to find common ground, share stories, and broaden ecological and human health conversations.

Chef Dave demonstrates the process of preparing Mohawk baked beans as well as Mohawk/Dutch corn poffertjes and will discuss the historical influence of European contact on Native recipes.

Experience the cultural artform of social transformation through creative expression and community weaving. A podcast about the event with event host Josephus Thompson III, along with friend and colleague Michael Carter Jr. is available here.