Asked & Answered

Ellen Gustafson (right) with Lauren Bush in Rwanda.

In 1980, the U.S. agricultural system began to change drastically, high-fructose corn syrup and other processed foods flooded the market, and Ellen Gustafson was born. Thirty years later, the world's population includes nearly 1 billion hungry people and 1 billion people who are overweight. Launched in the spring of 2010, Gustafson's 30 Project aims to take a 30-year look forward to bring about a global food system that provides enough—and healthier—food for everyone.

With fashion model Lauren Bush, Gustafson co-founded the FEED Foundation, which has provided more than 54 million school meals to children around the world, largely through sales of stylish, reusable shopping bags. Formerly a spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Programme, Gustafson is working toward a master's degree in food studies at New York University.

Interview by Laura Lynn Brown, World Ark contributor

World Ark: Tell us about the 30 Project.
ELLEN GUSTAFSON: The 30 Project is my attempt to make sense of a strange reality in the world today: There are 1 billion people hungry and 1 billion people overweight. The year 1980 kept coming up as a time when the obesity and hunger trajectories both grew, while agriculture shifted toward consolidation and mono-cropping in the West. I came to the conclusion that the food system in its current form is about 30 years in the making, and that if dramatic changes can happen over 30 years with negative outcomes, we have the opportunity to start now to make changes for the positive.

What's the 30-year dream, and what's happening now?
My 30-year dream is that people everywhere, from Boise to Botswana to Bangladesh to the South Bronx, are able to access nutritious foods for themselves and their families and that we have an agricultural system that allows that to happen with food that is not too far away and supports each region's economy.

To that end, our plan is to coalesce the groups that are currently dealing with hunger, obesity and agriculture and create some common goals to address all three together. We are starting by having dinners in cities across America to coalesce the local food activists, farmers, educators, chefs and organization leaders so that they can have a platform for working together to fight hunger and obesity at the same time.

What do you think can come out of hosting dinners and talking about food that will result in real change?
I believe that in today's climate of siloed action and competition for fundraising dollars and legislative priorities, it is very hard for different organizations in the food movement to work together. That said, there is a huge amount of energy in the food movement today, and people are really smart and passionate about eating better, as well as about feeding the world. If we can harness that energy and creativity toward some longer-term common goals, we can really change the world.

I hope that at the 30 Project dinners, people will make real connections across the table and meet players in the movement that they'd never met and with whom they can collaborate.

When you introduced the project at the TED conference, you mentioned Heifer International as a potential partner. Why?
What I love about Heifer's model is, first of all, it's obviously a sustainable model, to give people animals so that they can work and also provide income for their families. Heifer is one of the best at understanding the global nature of food problems. A lot of organizations don't look at the world in that way.

In your TED talk you pointed out that countries with great hunger are often politically unstable. Do you think decreasing hunger can improve the stability of those countries?
A lot of times security problems come from desperation, and what could be more desperate than being hungry and knowing your child is hungry? You don't care what you have to do to get food. One of the most sad dichotomies in New York is that Hunts Point, which is an area of the Bronx, is the site of the biggest food distribution center for the 15 million-person New York metro area. It's also one of the biggest food deserts in New York. I think that's practically criminal.

With a bunch of friends I've co-founded a charter school in the South Bronx called the Success Charter Network. The principal was telling me on the first day for their snack the kids had pineapple, and some of them had never had it before. Five or 6 years old, they had never had pineapple before. The teacher told them, "Try it, it tastes like candy."
There are a lot of kids coming to school holding a bottle of soda and a bag of chips, and that's what they've had for breakfast. … We're talking about getting people out of poverty. How can you if you're not working to your full potential?

What can individuals, especially young people interested in humanitarian work, do to make a difference?
It sounds like I'm a crazy hippie when I say this, but young people are interested in farming. It's a cool and interesting and healthy answer to a lot of our economic problems, to get more people growing healthy food that can be eaten by members of their own community.

This is a perfect young person's issue. It's an opportunity for people to be real activists and make real change. Even at Columbia [University] there's a school garden that students run. That wasn't on people's minds when I was there 10 years ago.

For more information about the 30 Project, go to www.30project.org.