Three Spartans talk about holiday food trends, the history and evolution of eating, the importance of knowing where our food comes from, the problem of food waste, food safety tips, and sustainable food systems.

Sheril Kirshenbaum hosts PBS’s Serving Up Science, Kurt Kwiatkowski is corporate executive chef for Gordon Food Services, and Helen Veit is an associate professor in MSU’s Department of History.

Conversation Highlights:

(1:05) – “One thing I always tell my students is that the way we eat today is very strange. Most people in history ate extremely differently than we do.”

(2:33) – “I feel that food brings people together.”

(3:38) - “The idea is to cultivate a culture where more of us understand where our food comes from and how it impacts our world.”

(4:00) – “Americans used to eat together a lot more than we do today.”

(5:07) – “Cooking is something uniquely human. It’s hard to point to anything else more uniquely human than cooking.”

(6:56) – “I still believe that sides are where it’s at.”

(8:55) – “What we see over and over is that half of Americans say they rarely or never think about where their food comes from or how it impacts their environment or their health.”

(10:35) – “People often say we’re not going to have enough food. There’s more and more people. But it has a lot to do with how we use resources and what we do on a per capita basis.”

(11:30) – “We are throwing away between one third and one half of the food we produce.”

(13:41) – “It’s even possible to waste food by eating it when you don’t need it.”

(15:37) – “Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands.”

(16:48) – “When you’re going to put stuff away, make sure you’re putting it away the right way.”

(21:29) – “The buzzword for a long time was farm to table. But what the chefs are trying to do is use local ingredients.”

(22:55) – “Local is good. But local doesn’t always necessarily mean more sustainable.”

(25:56) – Sheril defines and describes “food diplomacy.”

(29:12) – “You’re looking at the idea of taking comfort food and giving it a little bit of a twist or a zap. I like the term “swicy.”

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