Meredith Niles is an Assistant Professor in Nutrition and Food Sciences.
Where are you from? I am originally from Maryland and spent my summers in Northern Maine with family there.
Tell us about your cademic background & research focus. I am a multidisciplinary scientist- I had an undergraduate degree in political science with honors in environmental studies from the Catholic University of America. My PhD is in ecology with a focus on sustainable agriculture and environmental policy from University of California, Davis. I was a post-doctorate research fellow in sustainability science at Harvard University. I also have professional experience outside of academia, previously working in Congressional and Public Affairs for the State Department's President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and at the Center for Food Safety.
I examine food systems sustainability and policy with a focus on food security and climate change and farmer behavior and policy perceptions. I have several projects examining farmer perceptions and responses to climate change across both the developed and developing world as well as projects looking at integrated crop and livestock systems and farmer adoption of practices for water quality and water use efficiency.
What inspired you to integrate food systems research into your scholarship? Food systems has always been part of my research and scholarship. I grew up in a rural area around farming and had friends and neighbors who were farmers, so I guess it's always been a part of how I see the world. In college, I was inspired in particular to take my interest in political science and public policy into the food systems realm after taking a course called Food Politics- a class I will now teach at UVM!
What excites you about your current research? Hmmm- what doesn't excite me about my research? Not much! I really enjoy my work because it's both applied and theoretical and problem-driven. I love working with stakeholders in the community and farmers and policymakers. Simultaneously, I also really do love analyzing data to help us better understand drivers of behavior and change so that we can think about applications of research. On the subject of my research, I am really excited about what I study because it puts people at its core. Understanding how and why people make decisions and want to change their behaviors to create a more sustainable (across all aspects of sustainable-economic, environmental and social) food system is really important. If we don't understand people and why and how they change, we won't be able to solve any of the current challenges we face.
What do you think are the most pressing issues facing our food system? Climate change and the disparate ways in which it will affect food systems. These impacts will go beyond the farm field to also affect infrastructure and transportation, food distribution, growing seasons, etc. in addition to having a heavy impact in some places and likely being an advantage in other places. It's very hard to understand these impacts, but assessing how and why people might change to adapt is an important step.
I'm also concerned about the loss of both farmland and farmers. Without both our food security challenges in the future will grow as we lose farmland to development and our current population of farmers ages.
What surprises you about living and/or working in Vermont? There's an incredible amount of innovation happening here in food and agriculture, which is incredibly inspiring to see. We often hear about the loss of jobs in agriculture, but Vermont is demonstrating that doesn't have to be the case. I'm also surprised about how uniting food is to people living here- not just those of us that study it! It's a core part of the identity here.
Is there anything else you would like to share with us? I do a significant part of my work in New Zealand, another beautiful agricultural region with a strong attachment to its food culture. On the hobby end of things I love cooking, baking, mushroom foraging, running, kayaking and tennis. Among the nerdier things I've been doing includes a project to read a biography of every president in order- I'm currently slogging my way through Zachary Taylor.