Amid pandemic, new JWU dean Jason Evans is focusing on innovation in the food industry – The Boston Globe

Evans: The College of Food Innovation and Technology launched in the fall of 2020, but it grew out of a vision laid out in JWU’s 2018 Strategic Plan, “Focus 2022,” that the university would more comprehensively expose students to all-things “food” and be recognized for “preeminence in the study of food and its relationship to the world we live in.”

Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the food industry, and what innovations have been developed in response?

Evans: Most simply, COVID has created crushing economic realities for food- and beverage-centric businesses dependent on the social dimension of eating and drinking. With varying restrictions across the country on social gathering, businesses that were not able to pivot to socially distanced, outdoor, take-out, or delivery operations suffered significant losses or – at worst – permanently ceased operations. Those able to adapt to the pandemic did so entirely through innovation: new front-of-house operations, new menus better suited to take-out and delivery, new facility layouts, and novel revenue streams like packaged/bottled product and/or make-at-home meal kits.

Outside of the food-service sector, COVID revealed vulnerabilities in our conventional food system. Processing plant and distribution facility shutdowns wreaked havoc on nationwide supply chains and manifested to consumers as empty shelves at the grocery store. As it turns out, these disruptions to the status quo food system proved to be real opportunities for players in the “alternative food system” like smaller-scale, direct-to-consumer farm and food producers who were flexible enough to access consumers conveniently and safely.

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However, in some areas, these opportunities were not fully exploited because of limited small-scale processing capacity – especially slaughter/meat processing – or missing virtual or physical distribution and marketing infrastructure. Clearer than ever, then, COVID illuminated some of the challenges that proponents of more local/regional food systems and the small businesses therein have raised for decades.

If the American food system is to be more resilient in the face of natural and economic shocks in the future and more responsive to disparities in food access and community and human health, new investment in physical and virtual infrastructure and in producer and consumer education are paramount.

Q: What is the biggest challenge facing the agricultural industry today and what can students do to address it?

Evans: There are a number of important challenges facing agriculture, but in my view, the most significant of these is more of a system-wide breakdown in the relationship between food-buying behavior and the human health, community, and ecological implications of that behavior. In short, we are eating food that leads to higher health-care costs, shortened lives, lesser quality of life, ghost towns in rural America, and degraded natural resources.

This has happened for a number of reasons including the fact that eating habits/preferences are determined very early in life as a result of family behavior and certain biological forces; food and nutrition education in pre-kindergarten and elementary schools is severely lacking; and the design of the food system in general that makes sweet/salty/unhealthy snacks less expensive and more accessible than healthier options on a per-calorie basis.

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Solving these problems will take time – multiple generations – but it is critically important that we at least continue the conversation and understand these problems as actual problems. Graduates of the JWU College of Food Innovation & Technology understand that and, more importantly, are armed with the know-how and intellectual curiosity to find solutions.

Q: What are students learning about the sustainability of food systems?

Evans: Through their courses, students are introduced to the structure of the food system and the social, economic, health, and ecological implications of that structure. Through internships, practica and faculty-led projects, students are then given the tools to form their own well-informed opinions about the food system in political, economic, and ecological contexts and develop solutions to food systems problems through innovation and entrepreneurship.

The curriculum for the Sustainable Food Systems bachelor of science program explicitly addresses problems related to food waste, consolidation in food supply chains, food insecurity and access, poverty, urban/rural disconnectedness, natural resource degradation, and human nutrition and health.

Importantly, all College of Food Innovation & Technology students start their experience at JWU in a common culinary arts or baking and pastry lab core, ensuring that no matter their major or specialty, they have hands-on experience with food identification, preparation, and appreciation.

Q: Tell us about your experience growing up on a farm in West Virginia and how that informs what you do today?

Evans: I think so often about how fortunate I was to be a “farm kid” because every day I call upon the work ethic, sense of responsibility, and worldview that I developed watching my grandparents and parents wring a living from the soil. I learned early on to enjoy life’s little pleasures and moments of rest and, importantly, to not “sweat the small stuff” – because “who has time for that?” We all took care of each other because more often than not, we had to. The day’s work required an extra set of hands or sharing the load in some way.

In my new role at JWU, I hope more than anything that my colleagues – and the students we serve – see in me a commitment to collaboration, civility, and kindness and the capacity and desire to get the important work that lies ahead done.

Of course, growing up on a farm also meant that I learned a lot about food, including where it comes from, how it’s produced, why the conventional food system is full of large vertically integrated firms instead of small, diversified farms, and that farming is as much a way of life as it is a business. My mom is a fabulous cook, so I also learned an appreciation for food as the centerpiece to every life event.

Unquestionably, I pursued the graduate education I did because of my love for agriculture and its capacity to affect every part of the human experience.

Q: How is climate change affecting the food supply and does that get addressed in the curriculum?

Evans: Certainly, climate change and the larger ecological implications of economic activity – including food production and distribution – are addressed in College of Food Innovation & Technology curricula. Most practically, climate change will resurface the production landscape; the “where” and “how” of crop production will change to accommodate new temperature and precipitation patterns.

More insidious, potentially, are the impacts to the lesser developed parts of the world – the southern hemisphere, primarily – where changes in food production capacity caused by changed weather patterns will fundamentally impact populations’ access to food. It is imperative that the fight against global poverty continue unabated as part of climate change mitigation efforts, as the global poor stand to lose the most.

Q: What’s your favorite place to eat, so far, in Rhode Island?

Evans: It’s important to note that I have so far eaten at a grand total of two restaurants in Providence – out of an attempt to stay in the habit of cooking during my transition to a new life. But my favorite is Opa, a Lebanese restaurant in the Federal Hill area. It’s delicious, with excellent service and a great ambiance.

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @FitzProv.