From Costa Rica coffee farms to sustainability research

This fall, Kate Schneider was welcomed to Arizona State University as a new assistant professor in the School of Sustainability, a unit of the Rob Walton College of Global Futures.

Schneider’s expertise is in food systems and how they function and change over time, making her the perfect addition to the school and the team at the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems, a research center in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. She is also a member of the Economics for Sustainability Lab.

Schneider received her PhD in food policy and applied nutrition, with a focus on the microeconomics of food and nutrition, from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. She then became a research faculty member at Johns Hopkins University before joining ASU.

Schneider chose to come to the Southwest because she was drawn to ASU’s collaborative community, where shared values drive the work.

“I was really drawn to two things about ASU: One, the charter and especially the mission to join access and excellence,” said Schneider. “And two, that I would be joining the first school of sustainability in the country, where I would have many colleagues working on different aspects of improving the sustainability of our world, including others also working on sustainable food systems.”

In addition to her research, Schneider is excited to teach and mentor students, helping them to become the next generation of sustainability leaders. In the spring, she’ll be teaching SOS 327: Sustainable Food and Farms.

Schneider spoke with ASU News about her work, how she got here and what she’s hoping to accomplish at ASU.

Question: What is your focus area of research? What drew you to that field?

Answer: I study food systems with a focus on how they are functioning today and changing over time, to figure out what policies and interventions can improve the sustainability and health outcomes (that) food systems contribute to. I focus on the ways in which value chains, the people whose livelihoods are tied to food systems, and all of us as eaters are engaging with a larger system where change in one area is often dependent on change elsewhere in the system or will cause ripple-effect changes. And I also look specifically at consumer access and choices to better understand who does and does not have access to, and wants to choose, healthy and sustainable foods, and what can be done to improve access and change consumer choices towards the healthier and more sustainable options.

I originally came to this work after living on a coffee farm in Costa Rica as a volunteer English teacher. I learned how changes in coffee markets explained how the community had changed in two generations from a place where most people did not have their basic needs met and kids left school after only a few elementary grades to a community that was still relatively poor compared to others in the country but where food insecurity was relatively rare and most kids finished high school and beyond. That drew me to studying agricultural development in graduate school, where I worked as a research assistant studying agricultural development policy and earning a Master of Public Administration.

I went on to work at the Gates Foundation for five years in the agricultural development program before I decided to pursue a PhD that would allow me to do research on my broader food systems interests that included agricultural development and smallholder farmers in low-income countries, but also included access to healthy diets and issues of health and sustainability in both domestic and international contexts.

Q: What are you looking forward to most about being a faculty member in the School of Sustainability?

A: I’m really looking forward to getting to know the students! I have not had a chance to work with undergraduates yet, and I’m really excited to be in the classroom together to explore the issues of food systems that I’m so passionate about, together. I am also looking forward to the community at the school, having wonderful colleagues to work with and great events like the SOS Seminar to engage with students and other faculty and stay connected to the latest research going on in the field.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish at the university?

A: I hope to accomplish many things in my research and to build new collaborations with the amazing colleagues at ASU. But, most importantly, I hope to inspire and mentor some of the next generation of sustainable food systems leaders through our courses and through bringing students into my research projects.