As part of Professor Fanzo’s Fall 2021 Global Food Systems and Policy course, SAIS students were asked to create an original podcast on an issue related to the global food system. Find some of the podcasts, along with a brief description, below!
Food nUtrition in Chile & Jordan
By: Uzra Azizi, Walli Ansari, Aditya Misra, Marcela Monsalve
Our podcast focuses on food nutrition in Chile and Jordan. Chile has successfully implemented numerous nationwide policies surrounding nutrition to curb obesity in the country. The first part of the podcast discusses the law in a conversation with Maria Fernanda Mediano Stoltze, a Chilean post-doc at the University of North Carolina's Global Food Research Program. Before joining the UNC, Fernanda worked in the Ministry of Health of Chile and contributed to the drafting and implementing of the food laws discussed in the podcast. The second part of the podcast discusses food nutrition among the Bedouin community in Jordan, their food sources, and their challenges. The podcast concludes with possible solutions surrounding challenges in food nutrition and access to healthy food options.
Under The Sea
By: Lara Gohr, Victor Graf Von der Schulenburg, Malin Irgens, Gen Shiraishi and Juliette Denis-Senez
Our podcast, Under The Sea, is all about the need to make worldwide diets more sustainable, and how seaweed can help us achieve this goal. After a quick overview of what sustainable diets mean according to the EAT Lancet commission’s work, we move to an introduction on seaweed, its origins, benefits, and potential trade-offs. To evaluate whether seaweed, traditionally eaten in Asia, could appeal to western consumers we organize a tasting session with international students. We then reflect on potential solutions to the challenges posed by seaweed upscaling, and conclude with an interview of Olavur Gregersen – co-founder of Ocean Rainforest, a leading business in expanding the seaweed industry today.
California’s Drought is Killing Your Favorite Foods
By: Sophia Deyden, Bryce Feibel, Jay Kolina
Three SAIS Master’s candidates, Sophia Deyden, Bryce Feibel, and Jay Kolina discuss California’s difficulties with drought and the knock-on effect for almond farming, avocado farming, and the cultivation of wine in the Napa Valley. They survey other SAIS students about their consumption habits before deciding which California crop is most threatened by drought conditions.
Something’s Fishy
By: Ashu Agarwal, Camille Farradas, Bianca Galarza, Ryan Showman, Colleen Sullivan, and Abigail Vacheron
Hosts Colleen Sullivan and Camille Farradas introduce aquaponics, a food production system that couples aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as fish, crayfish, snails or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) whereby the nutrient-rich aquaculture water is fed to hydroponically-grown plants. Guest speaker Dr. Jose-Luis Izursa joins the podcast as our “non-expert expert” on aquaponics. He is currently a lecturer and advisor at the University of Maryland, College Park, and was a Fulbright scholar and consultant with the InterAmerican Development Bank, the World Bank and FAO. Through the conversation with Dr. Izursa, the podcast dives into the nuances of aquaponics with fresh ideas and perspectives while exploring the current prevalence of aquaponics, the future and viability of this system, and how plausible it is for aquaponics to feed the world.