In this episode of Handpicked: Stories from the Field, we sit down with Dr. Nevin Cohen, an Associate Professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health and the Research Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute in New York City, to explore how to measure food system change. Because of the complexity of our food systems, there are hundreds of metrics that can be used to measure sustainability and food system health. Dr. Cohen explains how food system researchers are rethinking the kinds of metrics they use in order to make important food policy decisions. Dr. Cohen highlights how hidden food metrics, or “Food Metrics 3.0,” can provide us with more nuanced understandings of what is happening in our food systems so that we can work together to make those systems more sustainable.  

 

Contributors 

Co-Producers & Hosts: Amanda DiBattista & Laine Young 

Research Assistant: Jake Bernstein 

 

Guests  

Click the links to learn more about their work 

Dr. Nevin Cohen 

 

Support & Funding 

Wilfrid Laurier University 

The Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems 

Balsillie School for International Affairs  

 

Music Credits 

Keenan Reimer-Watts 

 Lee Rosevere 

 

Resources 

Moving Beyond Acknowledgments- LSPIRG 

Laurier Centre for Sustainable Food Systems 

Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) 

Food Metrics Panel Discussion with Nevin Cohen 

CUNY Food Policy Institute Home Page 

SNAP Benefits Website 

Canada’s Food Policy 

 

References 

Cohen, Nevin, et al. “‘B-side’ Food Metrics.” CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, 2019.  

Household food insecurity is a serious public health problem that affects 1 in 8 Canadian households. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://proof.utoronto.ca/ 

CANADIANS VISITED FOOD BANKS 1.1 MILLION TIMES IN MARCH 2018. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://hungercount.foodbankscanada.ca/overallfindings/ 

 

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