Meet Me At the Table
My goal with this blog is to bring you perspectives from my past, peppered with insights and facts on the future of food, farming and health – providing “food for thought, action and personal responsibility.” As a registered dietitian and a sixth generation farm owner in Kentucky, the connection of farm to plate is part of my DNA. I have spent my career navigating the connections between food, health, agriculture and consumer behavior. Together, we will dig into the complex and ever-changing story of who grows our food, what’s in our food, and how food affects our health and ultimately our lives.
Lessons Learned Extend Beyond the Cow: Thoughts for National Dairy Month
Regardless of our childhood and how long ago it was, we have memories that bring smiles to our faces, tears to our eyes or the realization of what we thought was bad, may actually have been good. June brings those mixed emotions for me as we celebrate National Dairy...
Shining Stars Among Grim Realities
With farmer’s markets brimming with vegetables and strawberries, beautiful sunny mornings and French roast coffee brewing, I could easily forget we’re still “in this” (even with a mask on!). The pandemic, the long-term lingering effects of hunger, unemployment and...
Will the “New Normal” Become Normal in Our Quest for Food?
The calendar reflects the month of May with the dogwoods and azaleas blooms slowly fading and the trees in full green regalia. Spring is here (except for the recent frost!). But, as I peruse the articles and writings over the past couple of months, I am more reminded...
A Perfect Storm Blows Through the Food Chain
Food is at the core of our existence and our conflicts. “Wars (figuratively and literally) have been fought over food and continue to be fought today in developed and underdeveloped countries," is a statement I wrote in a recently published article on nutrition and...
When the Food Chain is Disrupted … Reality Sets In
When the food chain is disrupted by a global pandemic and the system starts to unravel beyond our control, reality sets in and we wonder what if this is our new “normal.”
Don’t Panic! We Have Food, Please Share
We are living in a new reality. Shopping carts overflowing with food have left grocery store shelves bare with signs of “limit of 2 on toilet paper” or “no milk or eggs until Saturday.” And this is not the usual “Southern clearing of shelves” before a predicted...
Stay Calm … and Wash Your Hands
Stories of bottled water, hand wipes and disinfectant disappearing from store shelves and the resurgence of canned good purchases have hit the headlines in the past week as concerns of a pandemic spread from one continent to another, and now is in our “back yard.”...
We Need to Restore Trust in Our Farmers
Trust is a tricky thing. One day you say you trust someone, a brand or a service and then in a blink of an eye, your view changes. A headline, a quote or a picture shoots an arrow through the heart of that belief. Your trust level has been challenged. And feelings of...
When Did Food Waste Become the Norm?
“Six garbage trucks of food are lost every second” “Farmers, Consumers Lose $15 Billion to Food Waste” “If food waste was its own country, it would be the third largest country, behind China and the U.S.” Every week, new stories, studies or presentations are cited,...
What Will This Decade be Known For? Feeding the World Without Fear?
Consumer trends, insights and questions of “where do we go from here?” populate numerous media sources when a new year rolls around and this year especially, with the arrival of a new decade, the lists abound! News about sustainability, climate change and plant-based...