Talk Description: Join Food Literacy for All’s 10th annual “Fast Food for Thought,” where 10 interdisciplinary UM faculty and staff gave 5-minute talks related to food and agriculture. This event was livestreamed as a Zoom Webinar and held in person at the Dana Building.
Fast Food for Thought 2026 Read More »
Talk Description: Hear about the history and work of The Farmers Land Trust, a national organization working to support farmland protection, transition, and secure access for farmers through the innovative Farmland Commons model, which decommodifies land by placing it in the ownership of local communities. Through this talk, participants will gain understanding of background on
Kristina Villa and Ian McSweeney: The Farmers Land Trust and the Farmland Commons Read More »
Talk Description: The talk provides a general overview of the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST), the biggest urban social movement in Brazil, and its revolutionary Solidarity Kitchens. Within a broader analysis of Brazil’s political and social context, we explore how, besides feeding thousands of people for free, these innovative social technologies serve as zones of community
Session Description: Alice Driver is a James Beard Award-winning investigative journalist from the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. She is the author of Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company (One Signal Publishers, 2024). In 2024, the book won the Lukas Work-in-Progress Prize from Columbia Journalism School and
Book Talk: Life and Death of the American Worker by Alice Driver Read More »
This panel brings together urban agriculture and food policy leaders from Michigan, Connecticut, and Texas to explore how cities are shaping the future of equitable food systems. Panelists will share how their positions within municipal government influence land access, zoning, funding, and community power, highlighting both hard-won policy successes and ongoing structural challenges. Together, we’ll
Panel of City-Level Urban Agriculture Directors Read More »
On Tuesday, February 24, 2026, Anthony Flaccavento joined Food Literacy for All for a powerful presentation titled “To Build a Healthy Farm and Food System, We Must Overcome the Rural-Urban Divide.” A farmer and rural development consultant from Appalachia, Flaccavento challenged us to think about how decades of “trickle down” economic policies have increased corporate
Friday, April 19th, 2024 The UM Sustainable Food System Initiative, Transformative Food System (TFS) Fellows welcomed USDA Deputy Under Secretary Stacy Dean, to speak on her career path from a UM student at the Ford School of Public Policy to working inside the federal government to advance President Biden’s agenda to improve nutrition assistance for struggling families and individuals.
John Vandermeer (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) gives a tiny talk titled “Inevitability of Surprise in the Food System” at Fast Food for Thought at the University of Michigan on April 12th, 2022. Introduction by Winona Bynum, Detroit Food Policy Council. Learn more about Food Literacy For All sessions here.
May 17, 2021 The third session of Food Literacy for All this year featured a conversation with Shirley Sherrod and Samina Raja, moderated by Devita Davison. This series is co-led by Andy Jones (School for Public Health), Devita Davison (FoodLab Detroit), and Lilly Fink Shapiro (UM Sustainable Food Systems Initiative). In this session, speakers discuss
Shirley Sherrod & Samina Raja | “Enact” Read More »
April 15, 2021 Food Literacy for All featured a second session featuring Navina Khanna & Mónica Ramírez. This series is co-led by Andy Jones (School for Public Health), Devita Davison (FoodLab Detroit), and Lilly Fink Shapiro (UM Sustainable Food Systems Initiative). In this session, speakers discussed how they “Organize” for the Politics on Our Plate,
Navina Khanna & Mónica Ramírez | “Organize” Read More »
