Author speaking as part of One Book events
Cornell College’s annual “One Book, One Campus, One Community” program is expanding to include a panel on food policy, a screening of the movie “King Corn” and a visit from an alum involved in urban farming.
The events, sponsored by the Russell D. Cole Library, the Berry Center for Economics, Business and Public Policy and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, are based around topics found in this year’s book selection, “Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer” by Novella Carpenter. The book is a memoir of Carpenter’s experience turning a vacant lot in Oakland, Calif., into an urban farm, complete with rabbits, turkeys and pigs.
In addition to a class visit, there are four public events.
Author lecture 11 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 22: There will be discussion groups during New Student Orientation and a lecture by Carpenter at the college’s opening convocation on Thursday, Sept. 22, in Kimmel Theatre.
Panel on food policy, 3:30-5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31: The panel on food policy, held in Hedges Conference Room in the Thomas Commons, will feature Laura Krouse, owner of Abbe Hills Farm; Francis Thicke, organic dairy farmer and former U.S. Department of Agriculture employee; and Fred Kirschenmann, farmer, former U.S. Department of Agriculture employee and Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in Ames.
“King Corn” screening 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7: The college will screen the documentary film “King Corn” in Hedges Conference Room. The film, first released in 2007, is about two college friends who move to rural Iowa to grow an acre of corn. The film examines the decline of family farms, the impact of government policy on farming and the ubiquity of corn in Americans’ diets.
“King Corn” director, 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10: Ian Cheney, one of the co-directors of “King Corn,”, will speak about the film in Hedges Conference Room.
2006 Cornell graduate Jeanne Firth, who obtained a master’s degree from the London School of Economics in Gender, Development and Globalization with a focus on food policy, will be on campus Nov. 3 and 4 to speak to English Professor Michelle Mouton’s class on Sustainability, Food and Writing, as well as meet with other student groups. Firth is the administrative specialist at Grow Dat Youth Farm in New Orleans, a Tulane University initiative to develop young leaders through the meaningful work of growing food.
This is the fourth year for the One Book program. Previous selections have been “Persepolis 2” by Marjane Satrapi (2010), “The Zookeeper’s Wife” by Diane Ackerman (2009) and “Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere” by Debra Marquart (2008).
