Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems

📣 If you missed the last info session about our graduate programs, you’re in luck!

We'll be hosting a second session this month to share detailed information about our MS in Sustainable Food Systems and Graduate Certificate in Food Policy and Sustainability Leadership. Applications for these online programs are still open for Fall 2026, and generous scholarships remain available to cover majority of tuition!

During this webinar, you’ll hear about:
- Curriculum and program structure
- Scholarship opportunities
- Career pathways
- Admission processes and tips
- Insights from faculty and students

🔗 Register here: https://buff.ly/GGdmBEh

[pictured: Student Callum Verstrate during our 2024 Food and Farm Immersive]

Our 2026 Food Policy Immersion is in the books! 🏛️📚

Each spring, we take our graduate students to Washington, DC for a jam-packed week of meetings with leaders who are writing, influencing, and implementing food and agriculture policy. This valuable experience gives students a comprehensive, firsthand understanding of the legislative and political processes that drive federal policymaking.

This year, we were fortunate to meet with 45 professionals, ranging from senior staff on Capitol Hill and economic researchers at USDA to award-winning journalists and advocacy leaders. We also partook in various excursions such as volunteering with DC Central Kitchen and touring the FOOD exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Our trip was particularly timely as the new farm bill had just passed the House days before our arrival, giving students the exciting opportunity to discuss this long-awaited piece of legislation directly with the experts shaping and analyzing it.

Until next year, DC!

👉 Interested in joining our next cohort of graduate students? Learn more here and register for our next info session on June 30th — https://globalfutures.asu.edu/food/graduate/

We canʻt wait for ʻAha Niu: Maui Nui Coconut Celebration Festival, this Saturday, June 13th!

We had an amazing event last month at the Tonatierra Community Garden! 🧑‍🌾🪏

Our student worker, Chandlee Begay, led attendees in using Indigenous techniques to create a traditional Zuni waffle garden. The morning began with a ceremonial blessing, followed by hands-on work making eight sunken beds layered with basalt powder, vermicompost, compost, and mulch. Each bed was then planted in polyculture with tepary beans, amaranth, and gourd.

Thank you to everyone who joined us! We can’t wait to watch this garden and partnership continue to grow. 🌱 Stay tuned for future events!

Help celebrate and protect Hawaiʻi's niu (coconut) by volunteering at ʻAha Niu: Maui Nui Coconut Celebration Festival! We're just 10 days away and still looking for volunteers to help make this free community festival possible.

🥥 Saturday, June 13th at Maui Nui Botanical Gardens
🥥 Shifts are only 1.5 to 3 hours long
🥥Enjoy the various activities and workshops at the event
🥥 Food, fresh coconut water & custom ʻAha Niu shirts for volunteers

🫶Volunteer sign-up link https://swettehawaii.ivolunteer.com/ahaniu2026

⏰ Schedule of activities and workshops
https://bit.ly/ahaniu2026schedule

ʻAha Niu: Maui Nui Coconut Celebration Festival is just a few weeks away! Come down to Maui Nui Botanical Gardens on June 13th! Pre-registration is suggested, but there will also be a sign-up on the day of. https://bit.ly/ahaniu2026

Consider volunteering! Shifts are 1.5-3 hours, and there will be snacks and an ʻAha Niu t-shirt to wear and keep :)
https://swettehawaii.ivolunteer.com/ahaniu2026

We’re so proud of our current and former student workers — Audrey Bunnell, Natalia Nava Bravo, and Layla Mushtaq — for graduating last week from the ASU School of Sustainability!

They have been incredible assets to our team while completing their degrees. We’re grateful for all of the creativity, dedication, and enthusiasm they brought to every project. Congratulations, sustainability stars! 🌟

Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 13th, at Maui Nui Botanical Gardens for a day full of love and appreciation for niu (coconut)!

Free registration: https://bit.ly/ahaniu2026
Sign up for a volunteer shift: https://swettehawaii.ivolunteer.com/ahaniu2026

Our executive director, Kathleen Merrigan, joined Danielle Nierenberg on the Food Tank podcast last week to give her thoughts on the new farm bill recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The conversation covered her concerns with the bill, reflections from her time as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, and her hope for the future of federal food and agriculture policy.

"We need to get back that alliance between SNAP and farm programs because without that, the future of farm bills is bleak."

🎙️Listen on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/food-talk-with-dani-nierenberg-by-food-tank/id1434128568?i=1000766623246) or watch the recording on YouTube (https://youtu.be/0R3tKC-LE2w)