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Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems launches podcast series

The Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (LCSFS), based at Wilfrid Laurier University, has launched a new podcast series to showcase research that drives positive changes in the ways we produce, gather, eat, dispose of and understand our food.

Handpicked: Stories from the Field presents the real-life stories of people such as farmers, academics, community partners, policy makers and activists as they work to make food systems more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.

“This podcast is different because it lives in a space that bridges academia and everyday life,” said Laine Young, a Laurier PhD candidate and lecturer co-leading the podcast series with Amanda Di Battista, the LCSFC project co-ordinator. “Through real people who are working hard to improve the food system and engage with the community, the series will introduce listeners to the important research that shapes the way we understand or reimagine our food systems.”

The six-part series opens with a discussion on the topic, “What is a sustainable food system?” The first episode features Laurier Professor Alison Blay-Palmer, who was recently nationally recognized for her food sustainability research, Theresa Schumilas, an organic farmer and LCSFS research associate, and other researchers, including Patricia Ballamingie of Carleton University and Andrea Collins of the University of Waterloo.

Episodes will be released throughout the 2019/20 academic year. Listeners will hear about how northern Indigenous communities are dealing with climate change, the impact that international food policy can have locally, and how new ways of measuring the food system – such as Google Maps – offer fresh ways of understanding food accessibility and sustainability.

To accompany each podcast, the LCSFS will post notes, teaching tools and links to other resources so listeners can better use the information they hear in their communities, classrooms or workplaces.

“Everyone eats, so everyone is embedded in the food system,” said Di Battista. “The Handpicked podcast allows us to showcase the research we’re doing at the LCSFS in bite-sized pieces, because the more we all know, the more we can activate change to make our food systems more sustainable.”

The Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems is an internationally recognized hub for sustainable food systems research, bringing together researchers and community partners from Laurier and other institutions who are studying food as a vehicle for change. For more information, CLICK HERE.