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Published on 09/02/10

D.W. Brooks lecturer to focus on global food systems

By Stephanie Schupska

For more than 25 years, the University of Minnesota’s Jean Kinsey has studied the issues of getting food to hungry people – and the economics, policies and opportunities involved.

She will relay her passion at the annual D.W. Brooks Lecture as she speaks on “Feeding Billions: Local Solutions or Global Distribution” Oct. 5 at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga. The annual lecture and awards ceremony will start at 11 a.m. in Masters Hall of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

Kinsey hopes her audience will come away from the talk with “a better understanding of, and interest in, the magnitude of the world food system and how it is interdependent with many other phenomenon such as climate change, water shortages, human health and poverty,” she said through an e-mail from South Africa.

“I am currently attending the World Food Congress in South Africa, where much of the discussion is about world hunger (food security),” Kinsey said, “and why it is so important to increase not only food production through modern technology, but to develop local distribution systems so food will reach the people who are hungry.”

Kinsey’s lecture will precede the presentation of this year's D.W. Brooks Faculty Awards for Excellence. The awards are given annually to UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences faculty members who excel in teaching, research, Extension, public service or global programs.

The awards were established in 1981 to recognize excellence in the CAES teaching program. In 1983, it expanded to include research, Extension and county Extension programs. An award for global programs was added in 1988 and is given in alternate years.

The lecture and awards are named for the late D.W. Brooks, the founder of Gold Kist, Inc. Brooks was an advisor to seven U.S. presidents on agriculture and trade issues. He also started Cotton States Mutual Insurance Companies in 1941 to provide insurance to farmers. The CAES sponsors the annual lecture series in his memory.

Kinsey is a professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota, where she has been on the faculty since 1976. From 1995-2010, she was the director of The Food Industry Center, a center focused on food industry research.

She conducts research and teaches on topics such as food consumption trends, obesity, consumer buying behavior, consumer attitudes about food terrorism, food industry preparations for food protection and defense against potential terrorism, urban access to healthy food in urban neighborhoods, and the global food supply system.

Stephanie Schupska is the communications coordinator with the University of Georgia Honors College.

Authors:
Stephanie Schupska
Experts/Sources:
Jean Kinsey
Dr. Jean Kinsey, University of Minnesota
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