MCLAS NEXT GREEN LIVING TALK: NEW ENGLAND FOOD VISION

Feb. 11, 2019
NORTH ADAMS, MASS. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) announces the next Green Living Seminar will take place on Thursday, Feb. 14, with a presentation on “Realizing the New England Food Vision” by Julia Freedgood, assistant vice president of programs at America Farmland Trust.

All Green Living Seminars will take place at 5:30 p.m. in room 121 of the Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation on the MCLA campus. Presented on Thursdays throughout the spring semester, this series is free and open to the public.

The theme of this semester’s series is “Sustainable Food and Farming,” which focuses on the past, present, and future of how food is produced and distributed in our region, and strategies for improving the sustainability of our food system.

For “Realizing the New England Food Vision,” Freedgood will speak about the New England Food Vision, and the status of efforts being undertaken to work toward realizing this vision.

Freedgood oversees federal, state, and local program and policy efforts to support farmland protection and agricultural viability. This includes oversight of field operations in several American Farmland Trust regions, the Farmland Information Center, Planning for Agriculture programming and research, as well as technical assistance and education to support local and regional food systems, farmland succession, access to land and support for family farmers.

The editor and lead author of “Saving American Farmland: What Works,” Freedgood is a nationally recognized leader in providing services to communities, and has spent much of her career ensuring a voice for agriculture in the community planning process. She developed a methodology to assess the contribution of farmland to local budgets called Cost of Community Services studies which have now been conducted in more than 150 communities across the country.

Freedgood previously served as the executive director of the Federation of Massachusetts Farmers Markets, a researcher on a three-year project called “Sustaining Agriculture near Cities” at Tufts University School of Nutrition in Boston, and the director of Sheep Industry Redevelopment Projects at the New England Farm Center. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampshire College in Amherst, and a master’s degree from the School of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts.

This semester’s Green Living Seminars will take place through April 25. Following Freedgood’s talk on Thursday, Feb. 14, the next Green Living lecture will take place on Thursday, Feb. 21, when Lydia Sisson, co-founder of Mill City Grows, presents “Farming in the City.”      

Podcasts of this semester’s Green Living lectures will be posted online following each presentation at http://www.mcla.edu/greenliving.

MCLA’s Green Living Seminar Series hosts lectures by local, regional, and national experts. The seminars are organized around a central theme related to the environment and sustainability. The 2019 series is a presentation of the MCLA Environmental Studies Department and MCLA’s Berkshire Environmental Resource Center.

For more information, go to www.mcla.edu/greenliving
or contact Traister at (413) 662-5303 or Elena.Traister@mcla.edu.

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) is the Commonwealth's public liberal arts college and a campus of the Massachusetts state university system. MCLA promotes excellence in learning and teaching, innovative scholarship, intellectual creativity, public service, applied knowledge, and active and responsible citizenship. MCLA graduates are prepared to be practical problem solvers and engaged, resilient global citizens.

For more information, go to www.mcla.edu.