DURHAM, N.C. – A new series of free public seminars aims to give consumers a taste of sustainable food and spotlight the rewards and challenges local producers face bringing it to market.

The six-part Robertson Seminar Series on Sustainable Food Systems is sponsored by the Nicholas School of the Environment at 91 and the Institute for the Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The first seminar will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21, at Love Auditorium in the Levine Science Research Center on Duke’s West Campus.

Subsequent seminars will be held every other Wednesday at 7 p.m., alternating between various venues at Duke and Room 116 in Murphey Hall at UNC-CH. Each seminar will focus on a different aspect of sustainable agriculture and food production, and will feature samplings of locally produced foods.

Seminar topics, locations and speakers are:

  • Jan. 21, “Emerging Industries,” (Love Auditorium at Duke), featuring speakers from Benjamin Wineries, Sari Sari Sweets and Chapel Hill Creamery;

  • Feb. 4, “Retail,” (Murphey Hall) featuring speakers from Mez Restaurant and Coon Rock Farm;

  • Feb. 18, “Producers to Consumers,” (Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Room 4, Duke) featuring speakers from the Carrboro Farmers Market, Chatham Marketplace and SEEDS nonprofit community garden;

  • March 4, “Food Security,” (Murphey Hall) with Andrew Kennedy of FoodLogiQ Inc., and Steven Wing of UNC-CH’s Gillings School of Global Public Health;

  • March 18, “Education and Outreach,” (Von Canon A at the Bryan Center, Duke) with Robin Kohanowich of Central Carolina Community College’s Sustainable Agriculture Program; Nancy Creamer of North Carolina State University’s Center for Environmental Farming Systems; and Alice Ammerman of UNC-CH’s Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention;

  • April 1, “Campus Concerns,” (Murphey Hall) featuring speakers from Bon Appetit food service and Duke and UNC-CH dining services.

Deborah Rigling Gallagher, assistant professor of the practice of resource and environmental policy at the Nicholas School, and Elizabeth Shay, research associate and lecturer at UNC’s Institute for the Environment, are co-organizers of the series.

The series is supported by the Robertson Collaboration Fund. It is being produced in collaboration with the Farmhand student group at Duke and the FLO (Fair, Local Organic) Food student group at UNC.

For more information email foodseminar@gmail.com.