Food Studies News
Professor Bellows’ new book explores the human right to adequate food, nutrition
Professor of food studies, Anne Bellows, introduces the human right to adequate food and nutrition in her recently released publication, Gender, Nutrition and the Human Right to Adequate Food: Toward an Inclusive Framework. The book identifies structural disconnects fueling food insecurity for a billion people, and disproportionally affecting women, children, and rural food producers: the separation of women’s rights from their right to adequate food and nutrition, and the fragmented attention to food as commodity and the medicalization of nutritional health.
The book explores conditions arising from these disconnects: structural violence and discrimination frustrating the realization of women’s human rights, as well as their private and public contributions to food and nutrition security for all; many women’s experience of their and their children’s simultaneously independent and intertwined subjectivities during pregnancy and breastfeeding being poorly understood in human rights law and abused by poorly-regulated food and nutrition industry marketing practices; and the neoliberal economic system’s interference both with the autonomy and self-determination of women and their communities and with the strengthening of sustainable diets based on democratically governed local food systems. The book calls for a social movement-led reconceptualization of the right to adequate food toward incorporating gender, women’s rights, and nutrition, based on the food sovereignty framework.
Falk College Announces new Master of Science (MS) degree in Food Studies
Syracuse University’s Falk College is now offering a new Master of Science (MS) in Food Studies. This 36-credit hour Food Studies MS program provides students with a foundation in the political economy of food systems, including human rights, food governance, and food justice and health. Food Studies continues to emerge as one of the fastest-growing fields of study in North America. The MS in Food Studies complements Falk College’s existing bachelor and minor in Food Studies.
Students earning the MS in food studies are prepared for professional opportunities in local and national government work associated with food regulation and industry relations; non-governmental organization (NGO) engagement in advocacy and policy associated with the human right to adequate food, food sovereignty, food and nutrition security, and trade and food-oriented labor; economic and social development work at the community, national, and international scales; and food production and distribution companies, services, and vendors in established or start-up modes.
The Master of Science in Food Studies through Falk College provides students with a deep understanding of multi-scale, global-local constructions of human rights and civil society claims, trade and food aid, and related public policy as they together influence human health, nutrition, and the environment. The program purposefully introduces students to multiple discipline-oriented research methods and emphasizes analyses that consider social justice, race, ethnicity, and gender and sexuality. Falk College’s unique departmental intersection of Food Studies with long-standing professional programs in public health and nutrition offers students critical capacity to engage in food systems research.
Teaching and student research is enhanced by active faculty engagements in these fields. The graduate food studies program encourages these transdisciplinary associations across Syracuse University with African American studies, geography, sociology, history, public affairs, international studies, environmental studies, women and gender studies, law, planning and architecture, as well as with public health and nutrition.
Syracuse University’s Falk College Highlights Graduate Studies at November 6 Information Session
Faculty, staff, students available to talk about programs, coursework, student life
Syracuse University faculty, staff and current students will welcome potential graduate students interested in the Falk College’s graduate programs in child and family studies, public health, marriage and family therapy, nutrition science, social work and sport management during a special Fall Information Session for graduate studies on Friday, November 6. The presentation begins at 4:00 p.m. at Falk College, Room 200.
Detailed information will be provided on graduate programs in addiction studies, child and family studies (M.A., M.S., Ph.D.), food studies (M.S.), global health (M.S.), marriage and family therapy (M.A.), social work (M.S.W.) as well as the dual degree program (M.A./M.S.W.) in marriage and family therapy and social work, nutrition science (M.A., M.S.), and sport venue and event management (M.S.). Details on our Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) program in trauma-informed practice will be available along with information on other Falk College CAS programs in, dietetic internship, and global health.
Falk College names three faculty to endowed Falk Professorships
As part of their visionary and purposeful commitment to academics as a path to success, Syracuse University alumni David B. and Rhonda S. Falk established a series of endowed professorships in each of the seven academic disciplines of Falk College. Today Falk College announced the following three faculty have been named Falk Endowed Professors:
Alejandro Garcia, M.S.W., Ph.D., Jocelyn Falk Endowed Professor of Social Work
Jaipaul Roopnarine, Ph.D. ,Pearl Falk Endowed Professor of Child and Family Studies
Rick Welsh, Ph.D., Falk Family Endowed Professor in Food Studies.
“We are grateful to David and Rhonda Falk, and the Falk family, for their vision and commitment to create an endowed faculty professorship in every academic program in Falk College. Alejandro, Jaipaul and Rick are internationally recognized leaders in their respective fields and exemplary scholars and teachers. The Falk College and the Falk family are privileged to support their efforts,” notes Diane Lyden Murphy, dean, Falk College.
The Falk endowed professorships allow Falk College to support internationally recognized faculty to enhance the research, academic and experiential components of its programs to advance its mission rich in teaching, research, scholarship, practice and service.
Dr. Alejandro Garcia he has taught in the areas of gerontology, social policy, and human diversity for over 35 years in the School of Social Work where he served as director. He is the co-editor of three books, including Elderly Latinos: Issues and Solutions for the 21st Century (with Marta Sotomayor) (1993), HIV Affected and Vulnerable Youth: Prevention Issues and Approaches (1999) (with Susan Taylor-Brown), and La Familia: Traditions and Realities (1999) (with Marta Sotomayor). He is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including being named a Social Work Pioneer by the National Association of Social Workers and being elected a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. This fall, he will receive the 2015 Association of Latino and Latina Social Work Educators’ Lifetime Achievement Award.
A professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies, Dr. Jaipaul Roopnarine’s areas of research include father-child relationships, Caribbean families and childhood outcomes, early childhood education in international perspective, children’s play across cultures, and immigrant families and schooling in the United States. An adjunct faculty member in the School of Education, he is an adjunct professor of education and senior research scientist, Family Development Centre, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He was a Distinguished Visiting Nehru Professor at M S Baroda University, Gujarat, India. Among his many books is the recent publication, Fathers across Cultures: The Importance, Roles, and Diverse Practices of Dads, with two additional titles to be released in 2015. He is also the author of over 100 articles and book chapters on childhood development across cultures. He recently finished a three-year term as editor of the journal, Fathering.
Dr. Rick Welsh is a professor of food studies who serves as chair of the Department of Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition.Under his leadership, Falk College created undergraduate and graduate programs in food studies. Prior roles have included professor of sociology at Clarkson University, policy analyst with the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture and the director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program for the Southern Region. He also serves as editor-in-chief for the journal, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. His research and teaching focus on social change and development with emphases on agri-food systems, science and technology studies and environmental sociology. Welsh is co-editor of the volume, Food and the Mil-level Farm: Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle published by M.I.T. Press. He has received grant funding from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, among other organizations.
Meet Falk College's first food studies major
Once she took her first food studies course, she discovered there is so much to know about food. So when Falk College announced its newest undergraduate major in food studies, it was no surprise that Anna Delapaz ’17 signed on as the first official major in the program. A double major in nutrition, her career plans are focused on becoming a registered dietitian. She hopes to delve further into her interests in community gardens and improving food access. “I think having a background in both nutrition and food studies is a great way to fully grasp the complexity of food,” says Delapaz.
This semester, she is the first intern for My Lucky Tummy, a community organization that works to promote awareness of the refugee population in Syracuse through sharing different ethnic dishes at pop-up food courts. Earlier this year, she worked side-by-side with people from all over the world. “It was really amazing to see food’s ability to bring people together and share a passion and love for food through My Lucky Tummy. This has been a great way for me to connect to the Syracuse community and appreciate the diversity it has to offer.”
Her advice to students thinking about a major in food studies is simple: “Try it out! FST 102, Contemporary Food Issues, is a great introductory class. Talk to the professors. Everyone in the department is so eager to share their passion. There is such a range in classes, from understanding sustainable agriculture to learning about worker’s rights. I’ve never taken a Food Studies course that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. Each class has something new and unique to offer,” she says. The course, Urban Food Systems, with Professor Evan Weissman, centered around a semester-long project that involved working with community members. “This was a great opportunity to step outside of the classroom and apply what we learned in class. I really appreciated Professor Weissman’s interest in getting students to see the Syracuse community. It was awesome being a part of a class that felt like so much more than just a class,” she says.
“The food studies courses are all the more thought-provoking and impactful because of the faculty. I’m almost done with the major but I joke with my advisor, Dr. Rick Welsh, that I’m going to take every course. I’m only partly joking”
Brainfeeders brings locally grown vegetables to campus
BrainFeeders, a student organization in Falk College’s Food Studies program, is working to establish long-lasting food access and justice programs throughout the SU/ESF campus. The group is partnering with Common Threads CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to have SU’s first-ever CSA drop off location on campus, which started in August. BrainFeeders has also partnered with the Student Association to provide free transportation from campus to the Regional Market on Saturdays in the fall. View schedule for Regional Market Shuttle. BrainFeeders’ faculty advisor is Professor Rick Welsh, who is department chair of Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition.
The Daily Orange recently highlighted the BrainFeeders student organization. Click here to read the full article.
In the article, students mention FST 403–The Human Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition, which is a course in the food studies undergraduate core. This class introduces the international human rights legal framework into the food system, with relevance both in the national and international context. According to Professor Anne Bellows, director of the graduate program in Food Studies who teaches this course, “the point is to understand human rights as a(n additional) legal and practical strategy in addressing challenges and contradictions in the food system. The universality and interdependence aspects of human rights mean that we can and must insist on a democratic system that endows us with the political and civil rights to demand our economic, social and cultural rights, including the human right to adequate food and nutrition. Simplified, we have the legal right to engage with others and the state to imagine and work toward ever evolving and (hopefully) improving visions of what human rights, like the right to adequate food and nutrition, can be. This is one way of understanding that activist engagement is powerful.
Professor Bellows adds, “the transformative potential (e.g. through public interest civil society engagement) inside human rights has relevance beyond food studies majors. The interdependence and indivisibility of human rights (e.g., you cannot realize the right to adequate food and nutrition without human rights of free speech, assembly, health care, decent work, as well as women’s rights, children’s rights, disability rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, etc.) means that learning about human rights legal frameworks in the food system has relevance beyond food studies.
Syracuse Food Justice Symposium October 2-3
“Taking Back Our Health through Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture,” the first-ever Syracuse Food Justice Symposium, will focus on grassroots urban agriculture and food justice. Scheduled to take place October 2-3, it is organized by a broad coalition of grassroots organizations, not-for-profit agencies, community gardeners, interested stakeholders and Syracuse University partners, including the Department of Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition in Falk College, the Department of African American Studies and the Humanities Center in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Canary Lab in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, the School of Education, and SUNY ESF’s Department of Landscape Architecture.
Sessions during the two-day conference will explore food justice, regional food systems frameworks, and engaging community youth in good food work, among many other topics. A dinner prepared by local chefs using regional and local farm products will be prepared on October 2, followed by the keynote address by Malik Yakini, founder and executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), which operates a seven-acre urban farm and is leading efforts to open a co-op grocery store in Detroit’s North End.
The Saturday, October 3 agenda includes a morning address by Carolin Mees, Ph.D., entitled, “The Built Environment and the Urban Garden.” Dr. Mees is an architect, writer and educator currently teaching the Designing for Resilient, Sustainable Systems class at Parsons The New School, School of Design Strategies.
The symposium is focused on jump starting efforts to create an Onondaga County Food Policy Council to coordinate long-term efforts at creating a just and sustainble food system.
In Central New York, and across the United States, people are working to create a cultural shift in how food production, processing, distribution, consumption, and waste are addressed. Growing support for community gardening and urban farming strengthen a regional food system to support food justice—that is, where all citizens can afford nutritious food throughout the year, and local communities benefit from all facets of the food system.
According to event organizers, community gardens and urban farms are a natural place to help consumers, producers, markets and decision makers find common ground to build more sustainable and locally beneficial food system opportunities. This event welcomes policy makers, planners, community gardeners, school administration and staff, elected officials, nutritionists and medical professionals, health departments, community organizations, philanthropists, educators, students and the general public to hear nationally renowned speakers, local and regional experts, community activists, and growers discuss how community gardens and urban agriculture can strengthen communities.
This event will take place at All Saints Church, 1342 Lancaster Ave, Syracuse, NY. It will be free for attendees, with a suggested donation of $20 to help offset costs for those who can afford it. Additional support for this symposium is provided by the National Institute of Food & Agriculture, USDA Award # 2014-68004-22166, and the U.S. Green Building Council. For more information visit the symposium website or contact Jessi Lyons at (315) 424-9485, x-233.
Brainfeeders teams with Common Thread Community Farm to bring CSA to SU, ESF students
Common Thread Community Farm, working with Brainfeeders, the food studies student organization, is making it possible for Syracuse University and ESF students to get fresh produce through a CSA share pick-up site on campus starting this August. See video here: The CSA vegetable shares will include fresh, sustainably grown potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, beets, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, peppers, eggplant, herbs, winter squash, celery, leeks, kale, chard and more. Brainfeeders is the first academically recognized Food Studies Club in the country and it is housed in Falk College’s Food Studies program. The student group acts as a resource for all students that have questions regarding where food on campus comes from and how it is produced. Learn more and get involved.
The Right to Food: Power, Policy and Politics in the 21st Century
Syracuse University food studies faculty and students traveled to the University of Vermont to attend the 2015 UVM Food Systems Summit June 16-17. It is an annual event drawing scholars, practitioners, and food systems leaders to engage in dialogue on the pressing food systems issues facing our world. On June 17, Professor of Food Studies, Dr. Anne Bellows, participated on the Geopolitical Context panel on the topic of, Gender, Nutrition, and the Human Right to Adequate Food: Toward an Inclusive Framework. Professor Bellows will release a book by that same title with colleagues this fall, exploring the status of women and girls specific to food security.
Four Falk College faculty promoted, tenured
Falk College is pleased to announce four faculty members from its Departments of Child and Family Studies and Public Health, Food Studies and Nutrition were recently promoted and tenured, including: Dr. Dessa Bergen Cico, Associate Professor, Public Health; Dr. Eunjoo Jung, Associate Professor, Child and Family Studies; Dr. Kamala Ramadoss, Associate Professor, Child and Family Studies, and; Dr. Rachel Razza, Associate Professor, Child and Family Studies.
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