Culture

Eat Like a Human

October 1, 2019  • Institute Staff

What does it mean to eat like a human? More than 200 guests on Maryland’s Eastern Shore found out in June at the Aspen Wye Fellows event “Food Evolution Revolution: The Cutting Edge Fusion of Archeology, Anthropology, and the Modern Kitchen.” The program featured Bill Schindler, the director of the Eastern Shore Food Lab at Washington College in Maryland. Schindler challenged the audience to ditch the processed food that makes up the bulk of the typical American diet—a diet that can lead people to suffer from both obesity and malnutrition at the same time. The dietary past, he said, which was free of processing, should inform current food systems and help Americans focus on nutrition and sustainability. At the Eastern Shore Food Lab, Schindler transforms college students’ view of food by taking them foraging, teaching them to cultivate sourdough cultures, and guiding them through pig butchering. Schindler also hosts workshops to teach the public how to restore their connection to real food. It is, he hopes, the beginning of a food revolution.

aspeninstitute.org/aspen-wye-fellows