Marion Nestle – Sustainable Food in the Trump Era
What is the state of sustainable food now, what are the forces affecting food choice, and what can we do about it?
On February 12, 2026, the annual Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture featured Marion Nestle – Mark Bittman’s “guiding light” on nutrition and Alice Waters’ “tireless warrior for public health” — for a bracing look at what’s on today’s menu and what’s in store.
Dan White wrote about the lecture for UC Santa Cruz.
Watch the video of the event here:
Event photos:
Marion Nestle is a consumer advocate, nutritionist, award-winning author, and academic who specializes in the politics of food and dietary choice. Her research examines scientific, economic, and social influences on food choice and health, with an emphasis on the role of food industry marketing. Her books explore how politics affects food production, dietary intake, food safety, and human and planetary health. She is the author of books such as the classic, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety, What to Eat, and many more! Nestle is the emerita Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health and Professor of Sociology at New York University. She also holds an appointment as visiting professor in the Cornell Division of Nutritional Sciences. Her degrees include a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition, both from the University of California, Berkeley.
The Peggy Downes Baskin Ethics Lecture Series is made possible by the Peggy Downes Baskin Humanities Endowment for Interdisciplinary Ethics which enables lively dialogue about ethics related challenges in interdisciplinary settings.