Thought for Food

Sometimes things just sneak up on you even when you hope to have an ear to the ground (perhaps it's because they are silent, and then your eyes are so slow, it's hard to see too far into the future). But there's a lecture coming up for free at UC Santa Barbara that's probably worth checking out if you're into the big picture food issues like "where the heck are we going to buy our food?"

Dorceta Taylor, Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, will give the talk "Vacant Land and No Supermarkets in the Inner City: Food Insecurity and New Initiatives for Sustainability" on Wednesday April 20 at 12 noon in the UCSB MultiCultural Center Theater. According to the press info from the Department of Black Studies that's sponsoring the event, "This talk will demonstrate how the growing problems of abandoned housing, vacant land, and deinstutionalization (including the flight of grocery stores) are affecting black neighborhoods. Dr. Taylor will detail the impacts of such processes on the life of cities, the ways cities are trying to cope, and the way that a research agenda can be built around such topics.

"Professor Taylor’s research interests include green jobs and other environmental labor market dynamics; social movement analysis; environmental justice; leisure and natural resource use; urban and rural poverty; and race, gender and ethnic relations. Her current research includes an assessment of the green job sector. Other recent research activities have included four national studies of racial and gender diversity in the environmental field. Her book The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s (2009) won the Outstanding Publication Award from the Environment and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association."