W. K. Kellogg Foundation Funds an Endowed Chair in Sustainable Environmental Food Systems at the UNM

The Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies Pro­gram has received a $1.5 mil­lion grant for an endowed chair in sus­tain­able envi­ron­men­tal food sys­tems and $150,000 in start-up funds from the W.K. Kel­logg Foun­da­tion. The endow­ment will sup­port edu­ca­tion that increases the well-being of stu­dents and cit­i­zens by advanc­ing envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence and social equity applied to the devel­op­ment of local food systems.

Accord­ing Bruce Milne, who was approved as chair by the UNM Board of Regents recently and direc­tor of the Sus­tain­abil­ity Stud­ies Pro­gram, this project puts stu­dents on career paths to pro­vide the com­mu­nity with organic, local food, green build­ings, urban farms, clean energy, bet­ter nutri­tion and bet­ter health. Stu­dents will work with com­mu­nity groups using media arts, ecol­ogy and com­mu­nity engagement.

“New Mex­ico faces a very high rate of food inse­cu­rity,” Milne said. “Devel­op­ing local, sus­tain­able and envi­ron­men­tally friendly food sys­tems will reduce this risk. My stu­dents imple­ment class­room knowl­edge in local com­mu­ni­ties. They will apply this expe­ri­ence in their future careers.”

The pro­gram brings together stu­dents, fac­ulty and com­mu­ni­ties to fos­ter dis­cov­ery, tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ments and soci­etal ben­e­fits though teach­ing, inno­va­tion and prob­lem solv­ing. Out­reach and research will focus on local food­sheds as inte­grated sys­tems of land, skill, regional plant vari­eties, infra­struc­ture and mar­kets. Together, edu­ca­tion and out­reach will increase food­shed per­for­mance in back­yards, neigh­bor­hoods, com­mu­nity farms, native vil­lages, the state and the region encom­pass­ing New Mex­ico, Ari­zona and Colorado.

Milne will lead on– and off-campus activ­i­ties to develop the local food­shed through class­room teach­ing and new courses about grow­ers’ mar­kets, agroe­col­ogy and the New Mex­ico food­shed. Stu­dent projects with fac­ulty men­tors will include assess­ments of food­shed capac­ity, crop diver­sity and envi­ron­men­tal poten­tial. Other stu­dent projects include the LOBO Grow­ers’ Mar­ket, held 10 times on cam­pus since 2007.

New Mex­ico cel­e­brates a unique mul­ti­cul­tural agri­cul­tural her­itage, abun­dant land, over 800 ace­quias, and a grow­ing demand for locally pro­duced, organic food. Clean energy goes hand in hand with food production.

“Food pro­duc­tion and con­sump­tion tie humans to land, water, energy and cul­ture,” Milne said. “A sus­tain­able approach con­cerns the well­be­ing of the envi­ron­ment now and for future generations.”

UNM grad­u­ates are becom­ing lead­ers in clean energy and local food projects. UNM’s degree in sus­tain­abil­ity stud­ies gives stu­dents from all sec­tors the scope to apply their edu­ca­tion pro­fes­sion­ally as lead­ers in all aspects of the green economy.

Estab­lished in 1930, the W.K. Kel­logg Foun­da­tion sup­ports chil­dren, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties as they strengthen and cre­ate con­di­tions that pro­pel vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren to achieve suc­cess as indi­vid­u­als and as con­trib­u­tors to the larger com­mu­nity and soci­ety. Grants are con­cen­trated in the United States, Latin Amer­ica and the Caribbean, and south­ern Africa. The UNM project is one of only six sim­i­lar endowed chairs funded by the W. K. Kel­logg Foun­da­tion in the United States and this fund­ing will exist in perpetuity.

The Kel­logg project fits UNM’s mis­sion to serve as New Mexico’s flag­ship insti­tu­tion of higher learn­ing and to actively sup­port social, cul­tural and eco­nomic devel­op­ment in our com­mu­ni­ties, enhanc­ing the qual­ity of life for all New Mex­i­cans.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit W.K. Kel­logg Foun­da­tion.

For more infor­ma­tion about con­tribut­ing to sus­tain­abil­ity, local food pro­duc­tion, research and edu­ca­tion or other UNM pro­grams, visit UNM Foun­da­tion.

Story by and media con­tact: Chris Elliott (505) 277‑3415; e-mail: elliott7@unm.edu