Alice Waters Kicks off Wallace Stegner Lectures

Food Movement Pioneer, Alice Waters Kicks off POST’s 24th Annual Wallace Stegner Lectures

Exploring the Integration of Ecology into our Daily Lives

January 8, 2016

(PALO ALTO, CA) —Alice Waters, world renowned chef and food movement leader, will kick off Peninsula Open Space Trust’s (POST) 24th annual Wallace Stegner Lectures on January 19 at 7:00 pm at the Menlo Atherton Center for the Performing Arts. Waters will reflect on the emergence of the local food movement in the Bay Area, a movement catalyzed by her signature approach of cooking.

In addition to being the founder and chef of Chez Panisse, a world-class restaurant, she has been lauded with transforming the American food landscape. In September 2015, she was honored with the National Humanities Medal. The medal cites Waters “for celebrating the bond between the ethical and the edible” and for championing “a holistic approach to eating and health that integrates gardening, cooking, and education, sparking inspiration in a new generation.” Her culinary philosophy is rooted in the belief that delicious food and sustainable agriculture are not mutually exclusive. With a group of friends, she helped shine a national spotlight on the importance of sustainable agriculture. The impact of her work extended into the school system with the founding of the Chez Panisse Foundation, later names the Edible Schoolyard project, with the goal of engaging students in all aspects of growing, cooking, and sharing organically and sustainably harvested food.

Journalist and Executive Director of The Edible Schoolyard Project, Katrina Heron will join Waters on stage in conversation., Heron is a former editor at Wired, The New Yorker and the New York Times, and co-founder of Civil Eats, a popular website promoting critical thought about sustainable agriculture and food systems.

POST’s Wallace Stegner Lectures, now in its 24th year, celebrate the conservation legacy of the late writer and conservationist Wallace Stegner—Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, Stanford University professor and ardent spokesman for the West’s wild places. This year’s lectures are unified around the theme of Bringing Ecology Home, and will feature additional talks from land use activist Wendell Berry, wildlife expert Mary Ellen Hannibal and NASA hydrologist Jay Famiglietti.

The late Ambassador Bill Lane and his wife, Jean, have sponsored the Wallace Stegner Lectures from their inception. Jean continues this tradition of sponsorship in memory of Bill, who passed away in 2010. Media sponsorship is provided by Embarcadero Media, publishers of Palo Alto Weekly, Mountain View Voice, The Almanac and Palo Alto Online. Additional media sponsorship is provided by Edible Silicon Valley.

To learn more about the series visit openspacetrust.org/wsls-2016

POST is a leading private, nonprofit land trust that protects and cares for open space, farms and parkland in and around Silicon Valley. Since its founding in 1977, POST has been responsible for saving more than 75,000 acres as permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. www.openspacetrust.org

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