“What I like about Food Systems as a major is that it’s pretty open-ended,” says Jonas Camera, a senior at UVM. “It’s great for people who are passionate and want to make their own way.”

Jonas is passionate about cooking and cultural foodways and therefore sought hands-on research experience through an internship at UVM’s new Climate Kitchen—a collaborative maker space reimagining the connection between food and climate change. Working with Dr. Amy Trubek, he developed recipes aligned with the Kitchen’s tenets for sustainable practice: plant-forward, low-waste, whole-food utilization, local sourcing, and integrating taste and habit.

Their project focused on buckwheat—exploring its historical and current production—and culminated in a series of recipes using buckwheat groats and flour.

“Jonas brought curiosity and commitment to our time together,” said Trubek. “He embraced new and sometimes unexpected challenges, always ready to apply design thinking and iteration to his recipe testing.”

The Climate Kitchen is supported by the Food Systems Research Center (FSRC), which funds people and planet centered collaborative research that connects disciplines and communities to answer complex food systems questions