Addressing Food Insecurity: A Community Approach
Lauren Shweder Biel is Executive Director and co-founder of DC Greens. She has served as co-chair of DC Health's "Diabesity" Committee and on the Mayor's Commission for Healthy Youth and Schools. Lauren was named a 2014 Toyota "Mother of Invention," and received a 2019 David Bradt Nonprofit Leadership Award. She is currently an advisor to the Aspen Institute's Food & Society, Food is Medicine working group.
What drove you to create DC Greens, and has any of that vision changed since you started?
My co-founder and I first founded DC Greens in 2009. So, if ...
Urban Farming for Social Impact
Josephine Chu is the Programs and Operations Manager at Common Good City Farm. She manages the distribution of the farm's produce through the Farm Stand and organizes the Seed-to-Table workshops and Community Events. As a graduate from American University's MA program in Global Environmental Politics, she became very involved in DC's food justice work. She co-founded Zenful Bites, a women-of-color owned social enterprise that provides plant-based eco-catering services and food education programming to foster a sustainable and fair food system in the DC metro region.
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Addressing the Animal Origins of Infectious Diseases
"We’ve found over the past few years that about 70 percent of new and reemerging infectious diseases have an animal origin. We have found that these diseases are spilling over into humans, and we think a lot of that has to do with humans encroaching more and more into animal spaces."
Protecting Sumatra’s Largest Rainforest
"Gunung Leuser National Park is the largest intact rainforest in Sumatra. The forest has one of the most diverse ecologies in the southern hemisphere. It is home to four of the world’s most endangered species of animals—the Sumatran tiger, Sumatran rhinoceros, Sumatran elephant, and Sumatran orangutan—and provides a substantial amount of oxygen."
PART II: ADVOCATING FOR GREEN BUILDINGS: IMPACT OR RHETORIC?
"Recognition can drive some of that demand from CEOs and clients, and mechanisms like that also help to create that demand and interest, but also guide the specifics to make sure that those buildings are true to being a green building."
PART I: ADVOCATING FOR GREEN BUILDINGS: URGENCY AND POSSIBILITY
"When you look at a vehicle, you see the emissions coming from the vehicle. It's different with buildings—you don't actually see the emissions that come from buildings, even though buildings contribute to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions"
DROP-OUT OR PUSH-OUT? MICRONESIAN STUDENTS IN HONOLULU
"Micronesians come to Honolulu with the hope of a better life for their children and for themselves. They dream of a good education, adequate health care, and the possibility of finding a job. Upon arrival in Honolulu, however, Micronesians face discrimination, lack of affordable housing, a politically charged healthcare environment, and a contentious—rather than secure—place in the public education system."
