Carlisle-Cummins profiled on UC Davis website
Carlisle-Cummins traces her love of food to the afternoons and evenings of her youth helping her father prepare meals. But it was a study abroad trip to Costa Rica in 2001 that brought her interest in food and agriculture into sharper focus.
“I was sitting in a chicken barn on an organic farm listening to a lecture about compost when my class received the news about the terrorist attacks on 9/11,” she said. “Trying to make sense of what had just happened, I looked hard for positive ways to make the world a better place. In a world that suddenly seemed much harsher, I saw organic and sustainable farms as living laboratories where people were solving practical problems that improved the environment while addressing the most basic social injustices.”
