Dr. Rachel Engler-Stringer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan and a researcher with the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit. She is currently the chair of the Saskatoon Food Council, has a doctorate in nutrition and her research interests include community food security, food environments and food access, food system sustainability, health promotion, and community-based and participatory research. We talk about many things in this wide ranging conversation including global food systems and the upscaling of industrial, mechanized food production following the second world war. We talk about how the distance between ourselves and our food has increased with the commodification of a few food staples, and the impact this has had on human and environmental health. We talk about food sovereignty and how food was used as a weapon during colonization, and about how our current food systems faces significant challenges and vulnerabilities in the context of climate change. We also discuss Dr. Engler-Stringer's current research into school food programs and how these can helps us re-connect with producing food, and create more sustainable, local food systems.
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