Ellen Gustafson quotes:

The abundance of cheap food with low nutritional value in the Western diet has wreaked havoc on our health; in America, one third of children and two thirds of adults are overweight or obese and are more likely to develop diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

To address our current food system problems, I propose a series of local, regional, national and global conversations - starting around the dinner table - to rethink the food we produce, buy and eat.

As an anti-hunger advocate, I found the perplexity of the obesity problem and the hunger problem existing side-by-side in our increasingly global food system begged further investigation.

I was studying International Relations at Columbia when 9/11 happened, and it made me want understand the security dynamics of the world. I had been more focused on soft power issues - understanding different cultures and such - but once 9/11 happened, I felt like I didn't know anything about security problems.

Maybe we need to re-engage our smart, energetic youth around the world to be farmers and find fresh, green technologies that will feed the world more fresh greens.

Farmers in America ... are pretty large in general. Their farms are also large. But farmers in the rest of the world are quite skinny, and that's because they're starving.

Once you start thinking about where your products come from and what they 'do,' that's going to be an inherent part of your choice as you purchase products throughout your life.