On The Chopping Bloc: Food Policy in a Boiling World
Seafood, strawberries, sugar substitutes: enter any restaurant, cafe, or grocery store and you’ll be greeted by an ever-growing smorgasbord of options. Yet, getting your coffee from a Tanzanian farm to the distressed wood table of your local, all-organic cafe requires many more steps than meets the eye. How can we best embolden laborers in the food and drink industry to receive their fair share? Global influences and local innovators are diversifying the food scene at rapid pace, but there’s no clear recipe for how to manage this increasingly massive melting pot. How can food policy be an area for debates over protection of cultural identity? With climate disasters disrupting growing seasons and food corporations extending their reach into vulnerable ecological zones, how can further environmental degradation be prevented? This large GA brings together global stakeholders in the food industry to discuss issues of food production and distribution. We hope delegates will cook up clauses on environmental protection, workers' rights, public health, culture, and more. We're looking forward to this policy potluck!
This will be a double-delegation committee. There are no position papers due.
Arzoo Usgaonkar
Chair
Arzoo Usgaonkar is a second year in the College who is double majoring in Economics and Psychology (and potentially minoring in Human Rights?). Raised in Mumbai, India, she moved to the US for college. Last year, she was an “Assistant Chair for The Saffron Resurrection: The Maratha Confederacy, 1761”. In addition, she will serve as an Experienced Assistant Chair for MUNUC36. Outside of MUN, she spends her time reading, working with a psychology lab, serving as a therapist-friend (naturally), finding every possible hot chocolate and mocha in Chicago, and more!
For all your new favorite Chicago food recommendations, or any questions and concerns, reach out to Arzoo at arzoo@uchicago.edu!
adam jensen
Chair
Adam is a second-year majoring in Public Policy and Environment, Geography, and Urbanization. As a lifelong fan of maps and geography, he is passionate about bringing discussion of spatial issues to the MUN circuit. He grew up in the Los Angeles area, and misses the sun and mountains more each day of Chicago winter! Prior to this year, Adam served as an Assistant Chair on the crisis committee Let’s Keep This War Civil: China in the Warlord Era, 1914-1922 ChoMUN XXVI. Outside of school and MUN, he works as a tutor for kids in the neighborhood, runs around the volleyball court with reckless abandon, and enjoys reading pretentious literary fiction.
Feel free to reach out to Adam at adamjensen@uchicago.edu if you have any questions, concerns, or want Geoguessr tips!
Eric Hembrough
Chair
Eric is a fourth-year studying Public Policy Studies with a minor in Urban Studies. This is his fourth ChoMUN staffed; in 2021, he served as an assistant chair for Royal Family of Taejo of Joseon, 1392, in 2022 as crisis director for Clara Barton's American Red Cross, 1881, and in 2023 as chair for The Fight for LGBT+ Acceptance, 2010. He is excited to staff a GA committee for the first time, as he has competed as a GA delegate at several conferences in the collegiate circuit. When he's not busy researching and writing his thesis (and enjoying his bittersweet last year before graduating), Eric enjoys learning about history and talking to his friends about pop culture, urbanism, and philosophy. He's also a foodie! (when his wallet permits) so this committee is exactly his cup of tea (pun intended). Eric studied Latin American civilizations in Oaxaca, Mexico for a quarter in his second year and spent the first half of his third year in Edinburgh, Scotland, so he is eager to talk about these experiences if any delegates have interests in studying, living, or working abroad.
Feel free to reach him at ekhembrough@uchicago.edu with any questions, concerns, or just with a greeting!