The Global Food Institute, an update
The work of 2023 was just the beginning!
Friends. Today I wanted to give you an update on the Global Food Institute at The George Washington University, which I first told you all about back in May. Since then, things have been rolling…2023 was a big year, and I know that 2024 will be even bigger!
As you may know, I first became connected with GWU more than 10 years ago when I first launched a course called “The World on a Plate: How Food Shapes Civilization.” In the class, which we’ve taught every fall, students learn about how food is connected to everything…food and agriculture, food and immigration, food and national security, food and science. In a few weeks I’m excited to share with you one of our first assignments for the class on science and cooking…I will tell you how we learned about heat transfer with molten chocolate cakes!
The thrill of having an amazing institution open its doors to me, a cook who dropped out of high school (and cooking school!), and trust me to teach its students…it fills me with so much pride and a deep responsibility. It’s exciting to be given an opportunity to educate and inspire the next generation about the power of food to change the world. I was deeply honored to become part of the GW family and have the opportunity to work with so many brilliant people across the community.
And now, I’m looking forward to be able to deepen that relationship through the Global Food Institute. The Insitute’s goal is to inspire a new generation—at GW and beyond its walls—to solve the world's biggest food problems, and to make food central to our global conversations. It has three pillars: policy, innovation, and the humanities. Policy speaks for itself, especially as we are hearing across Washington as our elected officials and policy makers want to fix our broken food systems but need concrete policy solutions for how to make that happen. Innovation is about the new food technologies that we haven't dreamed of, including an innovation fund to support new business. And the humanities is the role food plays in our culture, which is to say…Why we care. We’re hoping to bring government, business, and non-profits together—alongside the academics, policy experts, and entrepreneurs who are already doing the work across the US and the world.
Already, since we announced the launch last May, there has been some great progress. Last month, six GW students representing the Institute went to the World Food Forum in Rome. These students learned some super valuable lessons at the WFF…it sounds like they made some amazing connections with young people from around the world and attended sessions about how agriculture and food systems must be transformed for the sake of our environment and our future. But with the good, there came some criticism, which I’m also happy to hear about…these kids are smart, critical thinkers who are not the types to just sit around and listen to each other talk, to clap for each other’s speeches, to present the same old solutions to the problems we face as humanity today. Their open letter to the organizers of the WFF included both “sweet” and “sour”—with suggestions about how to improve the forum in the future.
The Institute also supported the launch of the Alliance for a Sustainable Future, which is bringing together the many interesting programs and brilliant people throughout the university who are working on climate change, sustainability, and environmental justice. You know that I am always looking for pragmatic solutions for big problems, so I am hopeful that if we are able to gather some of the best minds in the world, we will together come up with the best answers, of course with food at the center of changing the world.
And this doesn’t all happen without the work of some amazing people! We have named two leaders to get things going: Bill Dietz, professor in the Milken School of Public Health who previously chaired the Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness, is the Institute’s Director of Research and Policy; and Tara Scully, associate professor of biology and director of the GW’s sustainability concentration, is the Director of Curriculum Development. Which means that there will be research, policy work, and an entire course curriculum at the Institute for students, faculty, and community members to engage in. I have heard about a couple of the courses that will be developed for the new Minor in Food Studies (!) and I have to say…if I were in college now, I probably wouldn’t drop out!
We’re also undertaking a search for an executive director, who the team and I will work with closely to build and develop the institute. I hope I’ll have news to share on that front in the next few months!
I believe that the Global Food Institute will succeed because it is built to bring people together to understand how food should be central to conversations across all of GW’s schools and colleges, with students and faculty at the heart of research and innovation. And because we cannot just talk to ourselves, we will be bringing industry leaders, policymakers, and experts together to have some incredibly important conversations to help tackle the biggest challenges in the world.
Friends. This is going to be BIG, I’m telling you. If you want to learn more, check out the website and sign up for updates.
José, this is fantastic news. The Institute is a great gift to learning and sharing conversations about critical food challenges. I know it will be impactful and inspire a new generation interested in the power of food. I remember November 2012 when artist Gary S. Medovich photographed you at Jaleo's for our Global People of Influence art and education initiative. You shared your preparations for teaching a GW course on the critical conversation of food security. Congratulations for moving your passion forward with the Institute. We know it will be BIG!
Love what you do. Anita M. Schmied
PS.. Gary leans over my shoulder and sends good wishes.
Wow! You are doing so much good in the world!!