5th Annual ThinkFOOD Conference on April 7
Center for Food Studies Hosts “The Future of Farming: Democratizing the Food System”
The Center for Food Studies at Bard College at Simon’s Rock will hold its 5th annual ThinkFOOD Conference on Saturday, April 7, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Kellogg Music Center. Seating is limited and registration is required.
The 2018 ThinkFOOD conference will explore the theme “The Future of Farming: Democratizing the Food System.” The
daylong conference will feature interactive sessions with stakeholders in agriculture
and food justice, those who are working directly to change the system.
At the morning panel, speakers from Soul Fire Farm, Gardening the Community, and the National Young Farmers Coalition will discuss why the ownership of food production is important. Soul Fire Farm, located just over the New York state border in Petersburg, has a stated goal of ending racism and injustice in the food system; Gardening the Community is an urban farm and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) with and for marginalized youth in Springfield, Massachusetts; and the National Young Farmers Coalition in Hudson, New York brings young people to farming and raises awareness about labor practices.
Lunch, featuring local foods, will be served in the Simon’s Rock Dining Hall.
The afternoon will consist of roundtable discussions with invited moderators representing different facets of the food system including Will Conklin, executive director of Greenagers, and Amanda Brown, director of the UMass Student Farm in Amherst, Massachusetts. The roundtables will examine how concerned citizens can connect with agriculture in a productive way via social justice organizations, CSAs, farmers markets, and community gardens, for example. Conference attendees will select topics for the roundtables at the close of the morning session.
Finally, the conference will close with a campus tree walk led by Donald McClelland, Simon’s Rock faculty in Environmental Science, to discover native trees with foraging potential.
On the choice of this topic for the 2018 conference, Head of the Center for Food Studies Dr. Maryann Tebben explained, “For our fifth conference, we wanted to expand our reach to include presenters from the Berkshires, as well as the Hudson Valley and Pioneer Valley. Our invited speakers are on the forefront of a sea change to farming as an inclusive, diverse, and sustainable profession. The topic of democratizing food is of vital interest to the community and our students, who will be the next wave of farmers, activists, and food consumers.”
“We wanted to give attendees some practical takeaways,” Tebben continued. “The afternoon roundtables give attendees direct access to experts and knowledgeable practitioners who can offer advice, encouragement, connections, and education so that our community members can leave with the know-how to make a difference in their own backyards.”
Dr. Tebben’s work in food studies stems from her research in French literature. She recently published the chapter “Semiotics of Sauce: National Identity and Naming of Pasta Sauces” in Representing Italy Through Food (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017). Prior works include Sauces: A Global History (Reaktion Books, 2014) and an article on the history of French dessert in Gastronomica.
The 2018 ThinkFOOD Conference is co-sponsored by The Nutrition Center, Berkshire Grown, and Guido’s Fresh Marketplace. Admission is $25 (free for students). Lunch is an additional $10.
About the Center for Food Studies
The Center for Food Studies provides a forum for collaboration, communication, and learning across a variety of food realms by offering for-credit courses within existing Simon's Rock programs; collaborating with community partners to sponsor lectures, conferences, and other educational events on campus and across the region; creating opportunities for students and local organizations to benefit from internships and other work/study arrangements; and partnering creatively on and off campus to develop awareness of critical issues related to food, leading to productive connections and action. It advances the community’s knowledge of food as a cultural force and raises awareness of our responsibilities as stewards of a sustainable food system.