FoodWorks Talks are video conferences we have scheduled throughout the summer. Led by experts in the field, each Talk provides a high-content overview of the 5th Day theme for the week, connecting the FoodWorks Fellows to the same presenters and material, and to each other, before they embark on their 5th day experience in their respective locations.
Video recordings of each FoodWorks Talk will be posted on the FoodWorks Talks page as they become available.
3-4 pm
John Elder taught English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College from 1973 to 2010. His special interests in the classroom were American nature writing, English Romantic poetry, Basho and the haiku tradition, contemporary poetry of the earth, and environmental education. His most recent books, Reading the Mountains of Home, The Frog Run, and Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa, combine memoir with literary discussion and description of the Vermont landscape.
Along with his wife Rita and the families of their sons, John helps to operate Maggie Brook Sugarbush in the hills of Starksboro, Vermont. He is also active in statewide environmental organizations including the Vermont Land Trust, the Center for Whole Communities, and Vermont Family Forests
7-8 pm Monday, June 10th
As the Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability Initiatives at the University of Louisville, Justin Mog’s mission in life is to help people understand that sustainable solutions are not only fun and life-affirming, but they are all around us…we need only change the way we perceive and respond to the daily (and long-term) challenges of life. Justin has served as the University of Louisville’s Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability Initiatives since 2009. He earned his B.S. in Environmental Studies & Geology under the tutelage of David Orr at Oberlin College (1996) and went on to acquire an M.S. and Ph.D. (2003) in Land Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Environmental Studies. His graduate research focused on assessing the sustainability of international rural development projects, and his studies took him to Ghana, Costa Rica, and the southern Philippines as a Fulbright scholar in 2001. He continued this work from 2005-2008 when he lived with his wife in Paraguay working on sustainable rural development efforts with the U.S. Peace Corps and Plan Paraguay. Justin seeks an Earth restored and lives his life accordingly, as a car-free, TV-free, vegetarian, beekeeping, gardening Quaker with a fully solar-powered home.
A University of Louisville interview with Dr. Mog is available at http://php.louisville.edu/news/news.php?news=1553.
His thoughts on sustainability are summarized in this brief article: http://louisville.edu/uofltoday/campus-news/uofl-green-scene-what-is-sustainability.
With Ivor Chodkowski and Monty Fischer, at 10:00 AM.
Chuck Ross, Commissioner, Vermont Department of Agriculture, and
Theresa Zawacki, Louisville Metro Department of Economic Development
2-3 pm
7-8 pm Monday, July 8