Environmental Studies: Food for Thought - Schedule of Events

A conference to be held on April 14-16, 2011, o n the campus of the University of Portland. Conference registration opens February 1, 2011, and tickets to the Michael Pollan keynote event will be available February 1, 2011, through Ticketmaster and the Chiles Center Box Office on campus.

April 14th, 2011: Program highlights

From 6-9:30 pm, in Bauccio Commons, Fedele Bauccio (BS ’64, MBA ’66), co-Founder of Bon Appétit and member of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, will show DVD material about meat production, talk about non-therapeutic antibiotics and hormones in US meat production and the problems of concentrated animal feed operations, and take questions from the audience. Fedele will then host a tasting of hormone free antibiotic free meats and provide an opportunity to interact with small producers that Bon Appétit uses as suppliers.  Bon Appétit spends over $55 million annually on food from within a 150-mile radius of each café, uses only sustainable seafood, sources turkey breast and chicken raised without antibiotics as a routine feed additive, features natural beef burgers, and leads the industry in using cage-free shell eggs. In 2007, the company debuted its Low Carbon Diet, the first program to make the connection between food and climate change.

April 15, 2011, Food Film Festival

6:00 PM Topic discussion to prepare for movie
7:00 PM Movie on Food

April 16th, 2011, Program highlights

Evening Keynote Event in the Chiles Center: Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma,The Botany of Desire, and Second Nature, as well as a contributor to the book Food Incorporated which has been made into a movie and also numerous magazine articles, will give a keynote address. We anticipate an audience of perhaps 2,000. Oregon Public Broadcasting will be partnering to help make this event more prominent and to bring Pollan’s thought to as wide an audience in Oregon as possible. There will be a charge for tickets to this event, although tickets will be freely available to sponsors, faculty and staff of the University of Portland, and all college and university students.

During the Day

We plan four successive plenary sessions in Buckley Auditorium, which seats roughly 450 people. These sessions will include lectures, discussion sessions with opportunities for audience interaction, and will be open to the general public as well as our University community. These plenary sessions will be free of charge.

Session 1: Native American Peoples and Indigenous Food, Past and Future Perspectives

The Grand Ronde Tribe will work with us to organize this session, which will feature cultural aspects of traditional foods, their present status, and planning for aspirations of a future in which these foods remain available for cultural and nutritional reasons.

Session 2: Social Justice and Food

Moderator Fr. Jim Lies, C.S.C., Executive Director, Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture.

Participants: Br. Dave Andrews, C.S.C., senior policy advisor at the National Office in Washington, D.C .of Food and Water Watch, who is helping us to organize this session. Br. Dave has served as an advisor on food and water issues to the President of the General Assembly of the UN, and he has served for over a decade as executive director of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference. Kevin Concannon, U.S. Agriculture Department Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services. Ken Otto who heads the Board of FISH Emergency Services is being asked to speak in this session.  Kendra Kimbirauskas, who directs Friends of Family Farms in Oregon, and Julia DeGraw, the local organizer for Food and Water Watch, will also participate in this session.

Lunch:  Group Discussion

Session 3: Genetically Modified Organisms and Food.

Lisa Weasel of Portland State University, author of Food Fray and a nationally recognized speaker on this topic has agreed to give a presentation on Genetically Modified Foods.

Session 4: Sustainable and Local Food

Moderator Scott Exo, Executive Director of Food Alliance.

Portland is an epicenter for the sustainable food movement, locally based and organic agriculture, seasonal food consumption, the slow food movement, and a number of related ventures. This session will focus on food in Portland and the environs and how the relationship between people and food is being transformed. Fred Kirschenmann, President of Kirschenmann Family Farms (3,500 acres in N Dakota, certified organic). Kirk Mustain, General Manager of University of Portland’s Bon Appetit speaking about food suppliers and local initiatives. Deborah Kane the Vice President for Food and Farms for Ecotrust speaking on FoodHub. Susan Sokol Blosser founder of Sokol Blosser Winery (a certified organic vineyard and the country’s first LEED certified winery building).