By Estève Giraud

I was talking to my friend John, who has been waiting tables for the past 4 years.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues spread across the globe and around the U.S., the restaurant industry has been hit particularly hard. Stay-at-home orders have decimated these establishments, forcing many talented small-business owners to move to reduced hours, lay off staff members, or close outright. Fortunately, for the time being some businesses, such as Senae featured below, have been able to continue offering food for take-out and delivery. If you live in the Tucson area, consider ordering from Senae today! Or, wherever you are, remember to keep supporting local businesses and restaurants. 

This blog post was written by Arizona State University graduate student Alaine Janosy. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Alaine works as an independent sustainability consultant specializing in agricultural production systems and procurement. Through this work Alaine engages with companies to create, enable and expand strategies that drive adoption of regenerative farming practices.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the globe and the U.S., more and more Americans are facing food insecurity. Now more than ever, organizations like United Food Bank  and other Feeding America members are critical to ensuring that no one goes to bed hungry — but they can't do it alone. Please consider donating your time, talent, or treasure here, and together we can weather this crisis! 

This blog post was written by Arizona State University graduate student Liz Broussard. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Liz serves as a project coordinator at the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), where she supports the Mississippi Food Justice Collaborative, a network of organizations working to improve access to healthy food and transform Mississippi food systems.   

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By Kathleen Merrigan, executive director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University, and professor with appointments in the School of Sustainability, College of Health Solutions, and School of Public Affairs

Today a letter was sent to government leaders charged with developing the next iteration of the DGAs – Dietary Guidelines for Americans, an activity undertaken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services every five years. I am a signatory on this letter and believe that it is past time for sustainability criteria to be integrated into dietary guidance. I will let the letter speak for itself.

Read the organizational letter submitted to the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on March 4, 2020 here.

by Sharla Strong, Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems

Indigenous foods within the United States are rich in diversity. From taro root in Hawaii to the salmon of the Pacific Northwest, from wild rice of the Great Lakes Region to buffalo of the plains, Indigenous people are continuing their food cultures and working for the benefit of future generations.

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This blog post was written by Arizona State University graduate student Brandee Kitzmiller. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Brandee works hard empowering children to make healthy eating choices as the garden educator for the nonprofit Island Grown Schools on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.  

Situated about 30 minutes from downtown Phoenix, Arizona sits the 35-acre Blue Sky Organic Farm. As the ASU Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership cohort approaches the main farm house, we are welcomed by a handful of happy goats. We continue through a cluster of citrus trees and meet Sara Dolan.

Sara Dolan and David Vose have been farming since 1995 and their farm is 100% certified organic, meaning they meet strict regulations for the growing of all produce on their farm. Upon our arrival to the farm we were told repeatedly to walk only on the paths. If we had stepped into a field the whole area would not be allowed to be sold. Food safety is serious business.

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This blog post was written by Arizona State University graduate student Ali Kelley. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Ali is working hard to foster a regional grain economy by starting a grain business of her own in her home state of Colorado. 

Arizona is not known for bagels, but one of the best I’ve had can be found on the plains bordering Phoenix. With a tender dough and glistening, golden crust, this bagel rivaled any I’ve experienced in New York, or elsewhere. Was fresh water from the nearby Salt River responsible for this culinary gem? Hardly. The bagel’s unparalleled taste and texture resulted from the quality and freshness of the wheat flour, grown and milled on site. Whereas commercial All Purpose flour comes from modern wheat varieties (bred for yield and resistance) and is processed months or even years before it reaches the end user, this flour came from heritage varieties (known for flavor and nutrition) and was milled within a week of being consumed.

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This blog post was written by Arizona State University graduate student Kelly McClelland. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Kelly is a food leader in Flint, Michigan where she works as a nutrition program manager at the Crim Fitness Foundation, oversees Flint FoodCorps members, and serves on the board of Edible Flint.  

At the end of a long day of garden tours, the ASU Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership cohort gathered in the courtyard of Manzo Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona to learn about the school garden program at Tucson Unified School District.

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This blog post was written by Arizona State University graduate student Katie Davis. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Katie is tackling the issue of postharvest food waste as the senior manager of regulatory affairs for Apeel Sciences in Santa Barbara, CA. 

Just a short drive outside Phoenix, in Mesa, Arizona, is the Hatley family farm. Now known as Associated Farms, Adam Hatley and his family have been farming this land since 1976, when Adam’s father first started cultivating the land here. They grow approximately 1,200 acres of cotton on land leased from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. While cotton is not the number one crop in Arizona and production has been declining in recent years, it is still incredibly important to the state’s economy.

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This blog post was written by ASU graduate student Sarah Lemon. In addition to studying Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership at ASU, Sarah is a beginning rancher, who just finished a 9-month apprenticeship in sustainable livestock production at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in the Hudson Valley of NY.

They say, “good fences, make good neighbors,” and while that may be true, I can say for certain that in Wilcox, Arizona, “good neighbors, make good fences” and other good choices that support sustainability. Nowhere is this more evident than at the C Bar Ranch where Tina Thompson and her family are hard at work raising angus beef cattle.

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This article was written by William H. Walker VI, a sophomore in the School of Sustainability. 

Modern consumers have lost touch with how food is more than a commodity and brings more than nutritional value. Cultural, spiritual, ecological and community values are bound up in everything we eat. For food systems to be more sustainable, consumers need to embrace indigenous and place-based food narratives that foster more equitable food systems. 

To push back against the common narrative of food for nutrition’s sake, the Wisdom of Indigenous Foodways conference highlighted uplifting agricultural, social and sustainable narratives from the indigenous community.

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A food summit co-sponsored by Arizona State University brought indigenous voices to the forefront of a conversation about transforming our food system.

The ASU Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, Food Tank and the University of Hawaii, West Oahu partnered for the inaugural Food Tank Summit, “The Wisdom of Indigenous Foodways." The event, which took place on January 22 at ASU Skysong, featured 22 speakers, almost all of them Native American or Native Hawaiian. Indigenous celebrity chefs Mariah Gladstone and Sean Sherman, founder and CEO of The Sioux Chef, were also present.

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What food policy decisions were made in the Situation Room in the Obama White House? What was the process like writing the National Organic Program standards? How do we solve climate change through agriculture? Can organic feed the world?

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To create the inclusive, diverse and resilient food systems of the future, we need bold and knowledgeable change agents to transform public policy.

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