Wayne County Reads kicks off this week
By Staff Reports
Published in News on January 25, 2015 1:50 AM
As part of the annual Wayne County Reads program, Wayne Community College will sponsor a talk this week on the state of the world's food supply.
Dr. John M. O'Sullivan will speak on "Food Issues Present and Future" at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. The free public event will be held in Moffatt Auditorium in the Wayne Learning Center on the college's main campus.
O'Sullivan recently retired as professor of sustainable agriculture, local and community food systems at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and co-director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, which is located in Goldsboro.
O'Sullivan's lecture is provided by the college's Cultural Diversity/Global Education Task Force and serves as the kickoff to the 2015 Wayne County Reads "Season of Reading."
A dozen local food producers and agriculture-related organizations and agencies will have samples, information and displays set up in the atrium outside of the auditorium for a half-hour before the talk and during the reception that will follow it.
The public can also view the "Lexicon of Sustainability," a show of informative artworks that illustrate various concepts of sustainable agriculture. The works will be on display at the college Jan. 26-30, then will move to a new locations in the county each week in February in this order: Wayne County Public Library in Goldsboro, Wayne County Museum, Gov. Charles B. Aycock Birthplace Historic Site and Moye Library at the University of Mount Olive.
The book that the community reading program will explore in 2015 is "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life" by Barbara Kingsolver. Related programs will follow this event every Tuesday in February.
The events are:
* A book discussion with WCC English Instructor Liz Meador and WCC Agriculture Instructor Kathy Pfleger (mid-day) or WCC Agriculture and Natural Resources Department Chair Gabe Mitchell (evening) on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. in Weil Auditorium at the Wayne County Public Library. A light lunch will be served at the 11 a.m. event. Participants should bring their own beverage.
* On Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 7 p.m. at the county museum, a panel discussion on "A Seat at the Table: N.C. Farming and Foodways Then and Now" with Cheryl Alston of the Wayne Food Initiative, Marisa Benzle of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems, June Hoyle, Wayne County Master Gardener, Gabe Mitchell of Wayne Community College, Jessica Strickland of the Wayne County Cooperative Extension Service.
* Book Discussion, Brown Bag Book Club, Wednesday, Feb. 11, at noon at the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base Library
* Tuesday Tasting with Ed Cogdell - Local Food in Practice, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m., Ed's Southern Foods and Spirits. (Due to limited space, attendees will be chosen by drawings from participants at earlier events.)
* "Exploring the Local FoodScape: An Evening of Agriculture" panel discussion featuring Dr. Sandy Maddox, director of the University of Mount Olive Agribusiness Center; and Ed Olive, assistant director of the center, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. in Moye Library at the University of Mount Olive.
Details about the events will be posted under the Wayne County Reads tab at www.wcpl.org.
All Wayne County Reads activities are free and open to the public with no registration required.
"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" has won numerous prizes, including the Book Sense Book of the Year Award and the James Beard Award for Writing and Literature. It can be borrowed from local library branches or purchased from the Wayne Community College Bookstore and Books-A-Million.
For more information on the talk or Wayne County Reads, contact Tara Humphries at 919-739-7002 or tarah@ waynecc.edu. Contact Maria Cerra about the WCC Global Education/Cultural Diversity Task Force at 919-739-6899 or mdcerra@ waynecc.edu.