Changing Climate, Changing Labels: Figuring the true cost of food

Three student members of our council – Madelynn Prendergast ’19, Daniel Shepard ’19 and Eliza Wright ’19, are partnering with Karla Cook, longtime food journalist, nonprofit founder and strategist — and a co-founder of Princeton Studies Food — to conceptualize an entrepreneurial food label and dynamic app that goes beyond nutrition information to include societal and environmental impact.
As a beginning, students researched and reported water use, greenhouse gas emissions and land use of three main ingredients in the Princeton Studies Lunch menu: chickpeas (in Hummus), beets (in Roasted Roots) and lentils (in Megadarra).They presented their posters at the Changing Climate, Changing Appetites conference on Feb 17.
Cook provided nutrition analysis of the three recipes, supermarket cost per serving and a rough look at planning/culture shift/pantry revisions required for making the switch to more plant-based foods. At the conference, Wright conducted a short survey about expanded labeling.
For presentation of data on the three posters that were presented for the conference, the team began by adapting a Swiss pie chart/spider web design but is continuing work with Sheila Pontis, a lecturer at PU who specializes in the presentation of complex information, with other interested faculty, scholars and students and with Smith+Manning, a design and branding firm.