Graduate School Stole My Life

I feel like a fog has been lifted.

For the last two years, I've been in a graduate program at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and I'm realizing that I have a family and friends and hobbies that don't involve researching and writing long papers.  I graduated June 7th with a M.A. in International Development and a concentration in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security.  My time at Korbel was valuable, and I recommend the program to anyone interested in pursuing a career in international development.

Most importantly, I immersed myself in issues I care about and found other people who care as deeply about  finding solutions to absolute poverty, food insecurity, inequality of access to public goods like health care or education, and the list goes on.  I primarily focused my studies on international agricultural trade, U.S. agricultural policy, agricultural development in Africa, WTO agricultural trade policies, and agricultural policy at the national-level in several sub-Saharan African countries.  I also had the distinct pleasure to intern with an organization called The World Food Prize, an experience which further cemented my resolve to combat hunger at home and abroad.

My goal is to use this space as a place to talk about food issues, both in the United States and abroad, so be on the lookout for posts in the near future.

"One challenge we all face is poverty, hunger and malnutrition of large populations. Therefore achieving food security at the African level should be able to address these problems. I would therefore request the AU Assembly to share the dream that five years from now no child in Africa should die of hunger and malnutrition. No child should go to bed hungry. I realize that this is an ambitious dream but one that can realized. We all know that Africa is endowed with vast fertile soils, favourable climates, vast water basins and perennial rivers that could be utilized for irrigation farming and lead to the Green Revolution, and mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. We can therefore grow enough food to feed everyone in Africa. I am, therefore, proposing that our agenda for Africa should focus on agriculture and food security. I propose that our slogan should be 'Feeding Africa through New Technologies: Let Us Act Now.'"

Hopeful, if not lofty, ideas said before the Assembly of the African Union in 2010 by then Chairman of the AU and President of Malawi Bingu wa Mutharika.

Oh, Hello There

My name is Morgan, and I'd like to talk to you about food.

Let me start over. I'm a 20-something, recently graduated B.A. from a Big State School. I studied Political Science and French, and was (and still am!) way too involved with Model United Nations clubs and nonprofits. The short-term is uncertain, a little boring, but overall promising. I'm passionate about many things, but personally and professionally I care most about food, the politics of food, and trying to find solutions to food insecurity in the developing world, specifically in Africa.

I've been known as somewhat of a big mouth for most of my life. I'm loud, I'm opinionated, and can be somewhat unpleasant in voicing my opinion. I hope to use this space as means to flesh out my opinions on food insecurity and the like, to try and hone in some ideas as I prepare myself for graduate school. You can also expect some posts about home cooking, and probably a personal anecdote here and there. I'm not sure how the topics will mesh together, but I'll tweak the format as I go. At the very least, I'll try to be diplomatic and open-minded in my musings, but there are no guarantees when you're dealing with a big mouth.

Here's to my silly internet experiment!