FoodSoc Events

10/31/11
Food and Mental Health with Emily Deans, M.D.
12 p.m. - 1 p.m.
Pound Hall 100
Harvard Law School

The mental and physical health of the Western world has waxed and waned over the years according to environmental conditions.  In the United States, we have come to an unprecedented time of plentiful food and relative peace on the home front, yet we have increasing mental illness, and live our lives with physical or mental disability longer than ever before. Emily Deans, M.D. will explore how our modern Western diets theoretically contribute to our mental health burden using an evolutionary paradigm as a backdrop.

Emily Deans, M.D. is a board certified adult psychiatrist practicing in Massachusetts.  She graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 2000 and from the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency in 2004, and was a Chief Resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She is currently a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical school and blogs at evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot.com.

10/21/2011
TEDxHarvardLaw: Forum on Food Policy
8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.
Harvard Law School

TEDxHarvardLaw will focus on food policy and public health, with a specific focus on legal and policy approaches to increasing the supply and demand of healthy foods.

Dr. Robert Lustig will kick off the event with a lecture on “The Sugar Epidemic: Policy vs. Politics,” in which he will argue for a paradigm shift in the public policy approach to obesity.

Among the nine other speakers are Walter Willet, Chair of the Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, who will discuss how modern dietary patterns lead to disease; Doug Rauch, former President of Trader Joe’s, who will discuss his innovative idea to bring inexpensive fruits and vegetables to food deserts; and Susan Prolman, Executive Director, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, who will discuss the 2012 Farm Bill.

Check back soon for more information!

10/20/2011
The Sugar Epidemic: Policy vs. Politics
7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Harvard Law School

Dr. Robert Lustig, Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, will argue that it is time for a paradigm shift in obesity science and policy, away from personal responsibility and toward public health. His presentation will elaborate on his contention that sugar, like alcohol, should not be treated as an ordinary commodity on the open market.

Recently featured in the New York Times Magazine, Dr. Lustig has become a leading pubic health authority on the impact sugar has on fueling the diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome epidemics, and on addressing changes in the food environment to reverse these chronic diseases.

10/4/2011
“Defending Culinary Freedom: Why Keep Food Legal and the Bill of Rights Protect Your Right to Make Your Own Food Choices”
12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Pound 100
Harvard Law School

Baylen J. Linnekin, a lawyer and food writer who holds an LL.M. in agricultural and food law, is the founder and executive director of Keep Food Legal, a Washington, DC-based nonpartisan grassroots nonprofit. Baylen’s talk will address food bans and food’s fundamental influence on the language and spirit of both the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. In addition, he will discuss Keep Food Legal, the first nationwide membership organization devoted to culinary freedom—the right of every American to grow, raise, produce, buy, sell, cook, and eat the foods of their own choosing.

Cosponsored by the Food Law Society, Federalist Society, HLS Republicans, and the Harvard Health Law and Policy Clinic.

10/3/2011
"Partnering with Industry Help Solve the Childhood Obesity Crisis"
12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Pound 101
Harvard Law School

Larry Soler heads The Partnership for a Healthier America, an organization devoted to working with the private sector to ensure the health of our nation's youth by solving the childhood obesity crisis. Just over a year old and created in conjunction with – but independent from – Let's Move!, PHA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit that is led by some of the nation's most respected health and childhood obesity advocates.

Mr. Soler received his J.D. from George Washington University and is a member of the Maryland and D.C. Bar Associations.

 Cosponsored by the Food Law Society, HLS Democrats, Child and Youth Advocates, and the Mississippi Delta Project.

9/25/2011
Volunteer & Meet with City Growers
10 a.m to 2 p.m.
Dorchester, Massachusetts

In collaboration with theMOVE, we’re pleased to offer a farm-volunteer workday for Harvard Law School students at an innovative urban farm. We’ll work on the farm in the morning, followed by a brown-bag lunch and Q&A with the farmers.  Get a first-hand perspective about the challenges of working within city zoning and other legal hurdles faced by City Growers.

Sign up at http://citygrowers.eventbrite.com by Wednesday, September 21st.

Due to space limitations, this event is only open to Harvard affiliates.

9/22/2011
Barry Estabrook on Tomatoland
12 p.m. to 1p.m.
Pound 204
Harvard Law School

A two-times James-Beard-Award-winning journalist, Estabrook will discuss his recently published book, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit.  He was a contributing editor at Gourmet magazine. His work has also appeared in the New York Times “Dining” section and the New York Times Magazine, Men’s Health, Saveur, Gastronomica, TheAtlantic.com and many other national magazines. He has been anthologized in The Best American Food Writing 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010. His James-Beard-Award Winning website is www.politicsoftheplate.com. 

9/20/2011
TEDx Volunteer Meeting – Get Involved!
12 p.m. to 1 p.m
Pound 101
Harvard Law School

Be a part of TEDxHarvardLaw: Forum on Food Policy, to be held October 21st. Sign up for a committee and be a crucial part of putting on this exciting event, which will give you the opportunity to interact with some of the nation's leaders in food law and policy.

For more information, contact Krista at kdeboer at jd12.law.harvard.edu

9/15/2011
Food Law Society Info Session
12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Pound 102
Harvard Law School

Interested in food justice, sustainability, fighting obesity, or other pressing issues in food law and policy? Want the opportunity to interact with some of the most interesting and innovative people in the field?

Then join the Harvard Food Law Society to learn about how you can participate in upcoming projects, and how you can be a part of Food Soc's TedxHarvardLaw conference!

Zing pizza will be served.

4/5/2011
Dirt! with Dr. Jed Waddell
4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Langdell South Classroom, West Classroom
Harvard Law School

Please join the Food Law Society for a screening of Dirt!, followed by a discussion with soil scientist, Jed Waddell, PhD. Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, Dirt! is an insightful and timely documentary examining the important role played by soil in agriculture and development. A trailer can be found here.

After growing up on a small farm on the Piedmont Plateau in Western Maryland, Dr. Waddell has studied and published strategies to maximize farm productivity while minimizing costs and negative impacts on the environment. He assisted EPA in the revision of the concentrated animal feeding operations regulations prior to escaping to the wilds of Eastern Montana and the Northern Great Plains to assist the research arm of the USDA, the Agricultural Research Service; an elite group of agriculture-dominated scientists pooled together in the prime agricultural areas of the U.S. Again, the task was aimed to assist farmers optimally manage their farm with new technologies and reduce the impact on the planet while feeding the World. Jed has recently taken a position with GMO Renewable Resources, a forestry-dominated investment firm, interested in adding agricultural investments to their portfolio.

The event will be free and open to the public.

3/30/2011
Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Austin Hall, West Classroom
Harvard Law School

In his New York Times best seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Gary Taubes argued that our diet’s overemphasis on certain kinds of carbohydrates—not fats and not simply excess calories—has led directly to the obesity epidemic we face today. The result of thorough research, keen insight, and unassailable common sense, Good Calories, Bad Calories immediately stirred controversy and acclaim among academics, journalists, and writers alike. Michael Pollan heralded it as “a vitally important book, destined to change the way we think about food.”

In his lecture “Why We Get Fat: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity,” Taubes will explain why he believes the nutritional science of the last century has been misguided and damaging, particularly the “calories-in, calories-out” model of why we get fat, and reveal the good science that has been ignored.

Sign up at http://garytaubes.eventbrite.com

3/5/2011
The Science of Nutrition with Dr. Mathieu Lalonde
9 a.m., 225 Vorenberg
Harvard Law School

"The Science of Nutrition - The Basics" will delve into the dietary factors involved in the development of the metabolic syndrome and autoimmune diseases. The material will be supplemented with direct references to, and critical analyses of, the primary scientific literature on the subject of nutrition.

Participants should leave the event with the knowledge required to eat for optimum health and performance as well as the ability to decipher the primary literature in order to further augment their knowledge of nutrition.

Sign up at http://matlalonde.eventbrite.com.

2/24/2011
The Food Bubble: How Wall Street Starved Millions, Got Away With It . . . and Is Doing It Again
12 p.m., Pound 204

Professor Frederick Kaufman of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, speaks about the relationship between financial speculation and world hunger. Kaufman’s cover story for the July 2010 issue of Harper’s, “The Food Bubble,” has provoked controversy throughout the food world, and led to radio appearances—including Australian Public Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio, 
and NPR—and television appearances on Democracy Now! and Bloomberg TV. 

In “The Food 
Bubble,” Kaufman investigated the role that investment banks played in the upsurge of food prices in 2008 and how the subsequent rise in the price of global wheat pushed the number of the world’s food insecure to more than a billion people.

2/14/2011
Screening of "The Dark Side of Chocolate"
12 p.m., Pound 201

'The Dark Side of Chocolate' is a 45 minute documentary about the continued allegations of trafficking of children and child labor in the international chocolate industry.

In 2001 consumers around the world were outraged to discover that child labor and slavery, trafficking, and other abuses existed on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast, a country that produces nearly half the world’s cocoa. An avalanche of negative publicity and consumer demands for answers and solutions soon followed.

Almost a decade after the chocolate companies, concerned governments and foundations spent millions of dollars in an effort to eradicate child labor and trafficking in the international cocoa trade, has anything changed?

Taza chocolate will be provided.

2/9/2011
Food Law Society Spring Info Session
12 p.m., Pound 204

Interested in food justice, sustainability, fighting obesity, or other pressing issues in food law and policy? Want the opportunity to interact with some of the most interesting and innovative people in the field?

Then join the Harvard Food Law Society to learn about how you can participate in upcoming projects, and how you can be a part of Food Soc's TedxHarvardLaw conference!

If you can't make, but would still like to get involved, please email Nate at nrosenberg at jd11.law.harvard.edu

Zing pizza will be served.

1/18/2011
FDA Information Session
12 p.m., Pound 332

Interested in learning about the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that regulates roughly 25% of every dollar Americans spend?  Please join OPIA, the Harvard Law and Health Care Society and the Food Law Society for a brown bag lunch with Mark Raza, Senior Counsel in the FDA’s Office of the Chief Counsel.   Mr. Raza will also discuss FDA summer internships and career opportunities in the Office of the Chief Counsel and elsewhere in the agency.
 
Mark Raza is a Senior Counsel in FDA's Office of the Chief Counsel where he currently focuses on issues concerning biological products, combination products, and emergency preparedness and response.  In his career at FDA, Mark has held leadership positions in the Agency and the Office of Chief Counsel and has worked in the areas of enforcement and defensive litigation as well as in medical products counseling.  Mark will discuss career opportunities in the Office of the Chief Counsel and elsewhere in FDA.   He is a 1990 graduate of Harvard Law School.

11/17/2010
Backyard Birds: The Now of Food
12 - 1PM, Pound 332

Jennifer Hashley, is the Director of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (http://www.nesfp.org) at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Jennifer is also a vegetable and livestock farmer and raises chickens, eggs, pork, sheep, and rabbit.  Jennifer serves on steering committees for the Massachusetts Food Policy Alliance, Mass Grass, and the Concord Agricultural Committee.  She is a farm business planning instructor for the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and teaches farm labs for graduate students in the Tufts’ Agriculture, Food and Environment program. 
*Sustainable eggs served - Taste the Difference!

11/12/2010
Meat Meet II
Pound parking lot
3:30 - 5:00 PM 

It’s never too soon for another MEAT MEET! You can pre-order from Stillman by checking out what they have here and posting your requests in the comment section of this blog post.

Or you can just show up with a bunch of cash, or check, or credit card, and take your chances digging through the coolers like you would at any (purely meatcentric) farmers market.

Adapted from local chef JJ Gonson's blog at Cuisine en Locale.

11/11/2010
Biotechnology: Extending the Green Revolution (Social & Political Obstacles to Change)
5:30 - 7PM, Pound 107

We are pleased to host Elliot Entis, one of the founders of AquaBounty.  He led the Company as its CEO until 2008. His visit with us is timely, as AquaBounty is close to gaining FDA approval of its transgenic Atlantic Salmon.

 Mr. Entis also served as a member of the national Board of BIO, the association of biotechnology companies, and was chairman of BIO’s Animal Agriculture Board. Mr. Entis has written and spoken extensively on commercial and regulatory issues surrounding the introduction of foods derived with the help of the new tools of biotechnology. 

11/05/2010 
U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter presents a workshop on the Right to Food 
1-3 PM 

Harvard Law School, Room TBACo-sponsored with Harvard L.I.D.S. One hour discussion followed by a Q & A session

11/01/2010 
On a Dollar A Day
John Chipman Gray Room
12–1 PM

We are pleased to host Christopher Greenslate, who co-authored On a Dollar a Day: One Couple’s Unlikely Adventures in Eating in America (Hyperion Books 2010) about the economics of eating, which gained international attention and has been featured in The New York Times, and on Fox News, Inside Edition, National Public Radio and more. Publisher’s Weekly called it, “a sobering, personal consideration of hunger and poverty worldwide and in our own neighborhoods.”
*33 cent Meal will be Served!

10/22/2010
Meat Meet 
Pound parking lot
3:30 - 5:30 PM 

It’s never too soon for a MEAT MEET! For the uninitiated, you can pre-order from Stillman by checking out what they have here and posting your requests in the comment section of this blog post.

Or you can just show up with a bunch of cash, or check, or credit card, and take your chances digging through the coolers like you would at any (purely meatcentric) farmers market. Either way, it’s a chance to get together with a bunch of other local-meat lovers and exchange ideas, recipes and plans for fixing this crazy messed up food system we live with every day.

From local chef JJ Gonson's blog at Cuisine en Locale.

10/05/2010 
Harvard Food Law Society Kick-Off Event
John Chipman Gray Room 
7 - 9 PM 

Come learn about this exciting new student organization (so new that it's still pending approval) and ways that you can get involved!  Non-pizza dinner provided.

Other Local Events

10/05/11
Let's Talk About Food Safety
Museum of Science
7 pm - 9 pm

Food nourishes our bodies, but if improperly produced or handled it can make us sick, and it can be potentially fatal. What are some impacts of large-scale, globalized agriculture, and how do these practices affect our ability to protect the safety of our food sources? Participate in a "food contamination disaster" scenario, investigate potential causes, and discuss what we can do to prevent food-related contaminated illnesses

Free. Seating is limited; please register here.

2/18/11
Food for Thought: Food Security
Museum of Science
7 pm - 9 pm

How do we make sure that our food supply is safe, plentiful, and protected from systemic disruption? How can New Englanders learn to do a better job of feeding our growing urban population? Questions about the safety and availability of food are becoming vitally important to our future well-being. Learn what we know now and what we might to do to ensure food security for the generations ahead.

Free, but seating is limited; advance registration is required. Register here.

This forum is part of the Food for Thought series, encouraging conversation about what we can do to improve how we grow our food and feed our bodies.

2/17/2011
Screening of the Cheese Nun + Local Cheese Tasting
Rock Cafe, Harvard Divinity School
5 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Join the Food Literacy Project to watch this delightful documentary all about cheese (the first in our spring film series).  Under an hour in run-time, the Cheese Nun documents the life and travels of Sr. Noella Marcellino, a world renowned raw-milk cheese maker, Benedictine nun, and published cheese scientist.  Come try some tasty local cheeses as well, including some raw-milk cheeses featured in the film.  Come for part or all of the screening or just stop by for a bite!  More on Sr. Noella can be found in this New York Times article.

Directions: the Rock Café is in Rockefeller Hall at the Harvard Divinity School (near both Francis Ave and Museum St).

2/13/2011
Forks Over Knives
Museum of Science
2:30 p.m.

Can "diseases of affluence" — cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, and obesity — be controlled, or even reversed, by your diet? Catch the advance screening of Forks Over Knives, featuring Cornell nutritionist T. Colin Campbell, PhD, and cancer clinician Caldwell Esselstyn Jr, MD, as they reveal the power of plants as medicine. A panel discussion follows the screening.

Register here.

2/2 - 2/4/2011
New England Grows
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center

New England Grows is one of the largest and most popular horticultural and green industry events in North America — known for its progressive educational conference and world-class trade show.

More than 30 ground-breaking educational seminars are held during New England Grows. World-renowned experts present the latest research, trends, and predictions for the horticultural profession.

12/1/2010
2nd Annual Harvard Mississippi Delta Celebration
Harkness Commons, Harvard Law School
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Over the past few years, students and faculty from Harvard Law School, Kennedy School, School of Public Health, Business School and Harvard College have all traveled to the Mississippi Delta to work on a range of projects to improve the health, economic outcomes, community engagement, and overall wellness of communities in the Delta. Please join us to learn about new projects, meet members of the Harvard community interested in this region, and celebrate the wonderful work being done in the Delta.

This event is open to anyone from the Harvard community. Hors doeuvres, beer, wine and soft drinks will be served.

12/1/2010
The Locavore Way: Book Talk & Book Signing with Amy Cotler
775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Join Slow Food BU for a book talk and book signing of "The Locavore Way," with author Amy Cotler, a food activist, cookbook writer, recipe developer, and chef.

For more information about the book and about the author, visit Cotler's website and local food recipes blog at : http://www.amycotler.com/.

The talk will be held in BU Central, in the basement of the George Sherman Union building at Boston University. The address is 775 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA.

Free and open to the public.

10/30-10/31
5th Annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival
Saturday 10/30/10, 10 AM-6 PM
Sunday 10/31/10, 10 AM-4 PM
Reggie Lewis Athletic Center
1350 Tremont Street, Boston MA

http://www.bostonveg.org/foodfest/


10/13/2010 
Generation Organic Comes to Harvard 
1 PM 

Harvard Community Garden (47 Holyoke Place)
‘Generation Organic’—a group of young, dynamic, organic
school bus!



Grilled Cheese Social from 1 – 3:30 PM: the farmers will serve fresh grilled cheese sandwiches plus home-made pesto sourced from the garden! Stop by to eat, chat, and conspire about a more sustainable future for food and the planet.



Sustainable Farming Conversation from 4 – 5 PM in the Lowell JCR, featuring special guest organic pioneer and Vermont native Travis Forgues, followed by a reception and dinner with the farmers in Lowell.Sponsored by the Harvard Office for Sustainability and the Harvard Community Garden

Questions? Please email Rachel Johnson at rachel_johnson@harvard.edu.

10/12/2010 
Lunch & Learn: Vegetarianism and Judaism
Hauser 104
11:50 AM-12:50 PM 

Vegetarianism and Judaism: ethical, moral and theological dimensions.Is Judaism friendly, hostile or neutral to a vegetarian lifestyle? Do classic Judaic sources address the complex network of concerns that drive vegetarianism?Sponsored by HLS JLSA and ChabadRSVP by Monday appreciated to Daria at dauerbach@jd12.law.harvard.edu.

10/12/2010 
Exploring Careers in Food and Wine 
4:30-5:30PM

54 Dunster Street (Harvard College, OCS Reading Room) Guest panelists: Laurent Adamowicz (Fauchon), Martin Breslin (HUHDS), Ted Mayer (HUHDS), Nick Pappas '66 (Lizzy's Ice Cream), and Cathy Huyghe (Red White Boston)

To submit a local food event, e-mail us at hls.foodsociety at gmail.com