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Tune Into Sustainability

THE CAPSTONE celebrates the creation of a more just and sustainable food system through interviews, stories, and experiences of students who are finishing up their MSFS degrees at Prescott College. You’ll also hear from their advisors, about the significance of their work in the context of creating food systems change.

Season 2

Episode 1: Learn by Doing

Alex Sawatsky, Farm Manager at Rutgers University, created a course on small-scale organic farming for Rutgers with an emphasis on student-focused, experiential learning. His course is founded on the dynamic interaction of the elements of sustainability—economic, political, and social.  

Episode 2: Food Literacy For Families

Courtney Bonzo researched the pedagogy of food literacy to create a hands-on primer focused on families. Through activities that can be done together, she empowers families with a foundation for understanding food systems sustainability.

Episode 3: Truckin’ Toward a Local Food Vision

Interested in mobile food vending, Chad Snader evaluated different value propositions and developed a business plan for a food truck that would be a bridge between eaters and local food producers, addressing the challenges of local sourcing, menu development, pricing and transparency.

Episode 4: Helping Farmers Market Sustainability

Dave Kuder developed a business plan for a direct-to-consumer marketing service. The business and the guide he developed helped farmers become more economically sustainable through accessible marketing materials that educate and influence more sustainable consumer behaviors.

Episode 5: Gardening for Health

For her Capstone, Claire Tuohey-Mote designed learning modules focused on changing health outcomes for vulnerable adult populations through gardening. Through on-farm experiential learning, the workshop offers opportunities to access emotional, physical, mental and social well-being.

Episode 6: Burger With a Side of Sustainability

For consumers interested in making ethical choices regarding meat consumption, Karlee Shields wrote a handbook with the goal to re-connect people to the food they eat as a tool to shift animal production toward more environmentally restorative and cruelty-free practices.

Episode 7: Waste Not, Want Not

Motivated by knowing that 40% of all food produced in the US is consequently thrown away, and most of that waste happens at the household level, Mariah Hachmeister created a comprehensive and interactive food waste reduction workshop for consumers

Season 1

Prescott College The Capstone

Episode 1: Serving Those Who Served

After 25 years in the culinary industry, Mike Dewes, Culinary Director of the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, VT, has created a Veteran-focused Culinary Sustainability Program and discusses the impact of veteran-focused food systems education focused on sustainability.  

Episode 2: Let's Talk Dairy
Molly Fenske shares her experiences in creating a guidebook to opening dialogue opportunities between consultants and dairy farmers that addresses operational challenges and strategies that will enable them to implement sustainable solutions that are visible to consumers.

Episode 3: Dig Into School Gardens
The challenges experienced in managing a school hydroponic tower garden led Brooke Franklin to her choice of Capstone topic, in which she tackles a comprehensive review of existing research on school garden programs. She shares what she’s learned about the barriers to success as well as the models that work.   

Episode 4: Mapping Denver's
Food Security Network
Equal access to fresh fruits and vegetables is a challenge, and many communities are working to engage with initiatives aimed at reducing food insecurity.. Hannah Keitel, explores system-based thinking through an in-depth review of network mapping tools strengthened through collaboration.  

Episode 5: Entrepreunership
Cassie Greenberg brings her own business experience forward in her Capstone, a working template for business consultants interested in helping small local farms and food businesses become successful. Plug into her step-by-step guide that helps food entrepreneurs navigate
the challenges of growing a values-based business.   

Episode 6: Growing Nutrition in Hospitals
Sherri Pinero discusses her innovative Capstone project, a guide to creating a hospital-based edible educational garden, framed around nutrition and culinary programs. A model now being embraced by Kaiser Permanente, Sherri's guide provides a socially responsible health education model that supports environmental nutrition dietary recommendations.       

Let's define the future.

This podcast is a project of the Master of Science in Sustainable Food Systems (MSFS) at Prescott College, which supports the strengthening of communities and their members by helping people (re)build healthy, just, and sustainable food systems.  

In today’s world of complex food, nutrition, and agricultural systems, this program creates leaders with a deep knowledge of the economic, ecological, and social forces driving food systems from local to global scales. As a limited-residency program, students engage with one another, and a distinguished and diverse faculty, to build skills and knowledge that are applied in a personal and bioregional context. Currently the program offers optional concentrations in Sustainable Diets and Biodiversity, Food Justice, and Food Entrepreneurship and a new Dual MBA-MSFS pathway.  

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On The Show 

Dr. Lisa Trocchia
Host, THE CAPSTONE
Podcast

Dr. Lisa Trocchia is an Associate Faculty member in the graduate program in Sustainable Food Systems at Prescott College. She is also a network facilitator and consultant offering expertise in self-organizing, horizontal leadership, network organizational design, and visual storytelling. Lisa holds an interdisciplinary PhD in the Social Ecology of Food. She explores food-based social ecosystems from multiple perspectives, including Communication Studies, Sociology, Political Theory, and the study of networks and complex adaptive systems. Dr. Trocchia is a sensory ethnographer. She researches and writes about the performance of cultural foodways, food and the transmission of affect, and she examines the social ecologies of community-based food systems as sites of participatory and transformative change.


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Dr. Robin Currey Prescott College

Dr. Robin Currey
Faculty Director, MS in Sustainable Food Systems

Dr. Robin Currey is an ethnoecologist specializing in agrobiodiversity conservation in small-scale agricultural systems, or home gardens. Before coming to Prescott College, Dr. Currey served as faculty and Director of the Master of Science in Sustainable Food Systems (MSFS) program at Green Mountain College. In addition to her experience at GMC, Dr. Currey is the former Director of Mercy Corps in Kyrgyzstan, international development and humanitarian organization, and the current non executive Director for Community Development Financial Institution in Kyrgyzstan. Her work with Mercy Corps in Kyrgyzstan grew from her efforts to understand and influence the sustainability and resilience of small-holder agro-pastoral systems to address inequalities in the food system.

Connect

Whether you want to talk to us about a topic in Sustainable Food Systems, learn more about our Master's program, or, would like to interview us, we're available to discuss topics related to biodiversity, food justice, sustainable farming pracitces, soil science and more.  

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