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Handpicked: Stories from the Field

Presented by the Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, Handpicked: Stories from the Field is a podcast series that showcases research that drives positive change in our food systems—ways we produce, gather, eat, understand and dispose of our food. Produced and hosted by Amanda Di Battista and Laine Young, the series presents compelling, real-life stories of food practitioners, such as farmers, policymakers and activists. Episodes follow researchers and community partners in their efforts to make their food systems more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.

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  2. Episode 2: "What Gets Measured Gets Managed": Hidden Food Metrics as Tools for Democracy

Episode 2: "What Gets Measured Gets Managed": Hidden Food Metrics as Tools for Democracy

Oct 28, 2019

In this episode of Handpicked: Stories from the Field, we sit down with Dr. Nevin Cohen, an Associate Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health and the Research Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute in New York City, to explore how to measure food system change. Because of the complexity of our food systems, there are hundreds of metrics that can be used to measure sustainability and food system health. Dr. Cohen explains how food system researchers are rethinking the kinds of metrics they use in order to make important food policy decisions. Dr. Cohen highlights how hidden food metrics, or “Food Metrics 3.0,” can provide us with more nuanced understandings of what is happening in our food systems so that we can work together to make those systems more sustainable.  

 

Contributors 

Co-Producers & Hosts: Amanda DiBattista & Laine Young 

Research Assistant: Jake Bernstein 

 

Guests  

Click the links to learn more about their work 

Dr. Nevin Cohen 

 

Support & Funding 

Wilfrid Laurier University 

The Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems 

Balsillie School for International Affairs  

 

Music Credits 

Keenan Reimer-Watts 

 Lee Rosevere 

 

Resources 

Moving Beyond Acknowledgments- LSPIRG 

Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems 

Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) 

Food Metrics Panel Discussion with Nevin Cohen 

CUNY Food Policy Institute Home Page 

SNAP Benefits Website 

Canada’s Food Policy 

 

References 

Cohen, Nevin, et al. “‘B-side’ Food Metrics.” CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, 2019.  

Household food insecurity is a serious public health problem that affects 1 in 8 Canadian households. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://proof.utoronto.ca/ 

CANADIANS VISITED FOOD BANKS 1.1 MILLION TIMES IN MARCH 2018. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://hungercount.foodbankscanada.ca/overallfindings/ 

 

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Email: Handpickedpodcast@WLU.ca 

Twitter: @Handpickedpodc 

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