The UVM Food Systems Summit is an annual event drawing scholars, practitioners, and food systems leaders to engage in dialogue on the pressing food systems issues facing our world.

The Summit will include keynote addresses from food systems leaders, as well as panel discussions with scholars and practitioners.

The 2014 Summit will focus on local-level responses to globalization in the food system through the following themes: the impact of our geopolitical context on our food system, the biophysical constraints we face for food production globally, and the implications of behavior and culture for our food system.

Unlike traditional academic conferences, the Summit is designed to optimize engagement between scholars and practitioners outside of academia. As such, the Summit is open to the public, the organizers are actively seeking participation from regional nonprofits and government, and all sessions include time for Q&A and engaged dialogue with the audience.

If you’ve been to the Summit in the past 2 years, you’ll recall that we featured multiple speakers in an afternoon of short talks. It was a great way to highlight a wide range of people who are doing inspiring work to revolutionize the food system. What we heard from the audience is that people liked the variety of speakers, but wanted more opportunities to interact—to really dig into the difficult questions faced by scholars, activists, policy makers, farmers, and eaters of all walks of life. So this year we have re-envisioned the Summit as a day and a half gathering to maximize the opportunity for dialogue, networking, and engaging discussion on the pressing food systems issues facing our world.