FARM TO FORK FAITH / A DAY IN THE PIT / KITCHEN CHEMISTRY / HARVEY USSERY (’66) ON BETTER FOOD SUMMER 2014 AT M T D E R O S O F THE MAGAZINE OF WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY IN PURSUIT OF GREENER PASTURES By Ed Southern (’94) | Photography by Travis Dove (’04) 6 Natalie Sevin (’04) and Isaac Oliver (’06) are growing sustainable farms, relying on FEATURES an education with roots in historic soil. Isaac Oliver (left) and his father, Kevin, harvest carrots at Harmony Ridge Farm. 2 48 FOOD FOR THOUGHT FRIEND, FOE, FUEL By Rogan Kersh (’86) By Maria Henson (’82) and Kerry M. King (’85) A confluence of high and low culture accounts Food isn’t just about nutrition, say faculty for food’s place as a hot topic at Wake Forest scholars. It can bring us together, drive us — one with a Pro Humanitate twist. apart and serve as a powerful force for change. 22 58 FOOD AND COMMUNITY QUICK BITES Inspired by her grandmother’s culinary art, From birds and bees to research and root Shelley Sizemore (’06, MA ’09) seeks to help vegetables, food is an integral part of students examine hunger issues through academic and student life. Campus Kitchen. 28 104 KITCHEN CHEMISTRY CONSTANT & TRUE By Cherin C. Poovey (P ’08) By Harvey Ussery (’66) What makes popcorn pop? Chemistry Profound changes in how we practice Professor Angela G. King serves up answers on agriculture could bring healing changes in how science can make us better cooks. ‘how the world is used.’ 40 DEPARTMENTS FARM TO FORK FAITH 67 | Remember When? 74 | Distinguished Alumni By Cheryl (Katie) Miller Scarvey (’83) 68 | Commencement Awards The divinity school’s Fred Bahnson cultivates 70 | 76 | Class Notes ‘a whole new way to be a church.’ Around the Quad 72 | Philanthropy WAKEFOREST FROM theh PRESIDENT MAGAZINE i love barbecue, SUMMER 2014 | VOLUME 61 | NUMBER 3 although I may be heretical in that my favorite barbe- ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE cue is BBQ ribs. Fried okra. Maria Henson (’82) Good grits for breakfast. MANAGING EDITOR Brunswick stew. They rank Cherin C. Poovey (P ’08) high on my list of foods I SENIOR EDITOR looked forward to eating Kerry M. King (’85) when I returned South. DEPUTY EDITOR This latest issue of Wake Janet Williamson (P ’00, ’03) Forest Magazine is replete CREATIVE DIRECTOR Hayes Henderson with food memories and observations by faculty members and Provost Rogan Kersh (’86) about how food-related topics provide opportunities for critical exam- DESIGNERS Jill Carson ination across academic disciplines on this campus and at universities nationally. Julie Helsabeck Kris Hendershott I remember going down to the country when my father was the guest pastor at a PHOTOGRAPHER church at Cameron, S.C., about 30 miles from Columbia. Those visits showcased Ken Bennett food of the Old South par excellence because Sunday dinner — we would not STUDENT INTERNS Margaret Mercer (’15) miss that. There would be three kinds of meat, seven vegetables, two or three Tess Stowers (’14) cakes. The principal people of town owned a pecan orchard, so there would be PRINTING pecan pie, of course, and coconut cake and ambrosia with oranges and coconut. The Lane Press, Inc. This kind of country spread was a highlight of my growing up. And I loved Krispy Kreme even then. There was a shop near where I lived in Wake Forest University Magazine (ISSN 0279- Columbia. When I was in the Latin club in seventh and eighth grade, to raise 3946) is published three times a year in the Spring, Summer and Fall by Wake Forest University, P.O. money we would buy them for 35 cents a dozen and sell them for 50 cents a Box 7227, Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7227. It is sent dozen. After I moved North out of Krispy Kreme range, whenever I would to alumni, donors and friends of the University. return to the South to visit my mother in the retirement home, she would go to [email protected] bed at nine o’clock and I would go to Krispy Kreme and eat four, five or six magazine.wfu.edu doughnuts with no guilt. twitter.com/wfumagazine facebook.com/wakeforestmagazine instagram.com/wakeforestmagazine On campus the focus on food ranges from public policy questions in courses — Send address changes or cancellation requests to: are soft drinks the next cigarettes? — and socioeconomic questions around the Wake Forest Magazine Alumni Records accessibility of fruits and produce in low-income neighborhoods to the challenge P.O. Box 7227 of encouraging students to establish healthy lifestyles they can sustain through- Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7227 [email protected] out their lives. The conversation around the topic has many dimensions. 1.800.752.8567 © 2014 You will also read in this edition about our latest Distinguished Alumni Award winners: Karen Bruton (MBA ’84) of Brentwood, Tenn., Norman B. Kellum Jr. (’59, JD ’65, P ’96) of Trent Woods, N.C., and James “Jim” T. Williams Jr. (’62, JD ’66, P ’89, ’92) of Greensboro, N.C. They represent the highest form of service and the most exemplary characteristics one would hope for in Wake Forest grad- uates. I know you will enjoy reading about them and their accomplishments. ON THE COVER Warm regards, Provost and Professor of Political Science Rogan Kersh (’86) studies the U.S. health care policy system and is a nationally recognized expert on obesity. Photograph by Ken Bennett 2 WAKE FOREST MAGAZINE FEATURES A CONFLUENCE OF HIGH AND LOW CULTURE ACCOUNTS FOR FOOD’S PLACE AS PERHAPS THE HOTTEST TOPIC ON CAMPUSES ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND, AT WAKE FOREST, ONE WITH A PRO HUMANITATE TWIST. BY ROGAN KERSH (’86) PHOTOGRAPHY BY KEN BENNETT SUMMER 2014 3 he scene: opening session of POL 210, “Food Politics Natural History of Four Meals” is a richly nuanced portrait and Policy,” fall semester 2013. I’d asked my filled- of our bewildering “food landscape,” ranging from pastoral to-capacity class of Wake Forest students to explain organic farms to laboratory creations like xanthan gum. Eric briefly why they’d enrolled, and their answers came with Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All- gusto. “Everybody’s talking about GM (genetically modified) American Meal,” perhaps the unlikeliest book ever turned food labeling.” “I’m concerned about factory-farmed into a Hollywood film, traced the rise to gustatory and animals.” “I’m planning to be the CEO of a frozen-food cultural supremacy of Whoppers and Chicken McNuggets. company.” (Remarkably focused, that last fellow.) Ten years Morgan Spurlock ate every single meal at McDonald’s for ago, I couldn’t help musing, we’d have been lucky to find five one month and filmed the whole peculiar experiment; the students interested in food politics. Today we could pack an result, “Super Size Me,” remains among the highest-grossing entire lecture hall. documentaries ever. Once the exclusive academic province of The national nerve touched by this trio, along with others agricultural science and nutrition studies, exploring our food practices on page and screen, roughly food (and beverages; I’m using the term in its coincided with the rise of an American celebrity chef culture. broadest sense) may be the hottest topic on campuses across Television did much to speed this latter development: the United States today. Sociologists and anthropologists watching Jamie Oliver or Paula Deen or the latest “Iron Chef” study fast-changing ‘food cultures’ around the world. winner helped make their restaurants national destinations, Psychologists delve into food addiction and its their cookbooks bestsellers, their Twitter followers soar close cousin, eating disorders. Health sciences (Oliver: 3.79 million). faculty and clinicians seek to reduce obesity and address the manifold illnesses exacerbated by Thus both high and low Americans’ rich diets. Historians and linguists cultures have converged retrace civilizational changes to how past peoples over the past decade or ate — and how they talked about eating. Political so on the importance of science students, in classes like mine, explore how food, a Serious Subject policymakers address issues ranging from food for diners, do-gooders deserts in East Winston-Salem to and culture critics alike. climate change’s effect on global Mix into this heady brew a food production. generation that volunteers for public service causes at Helping drive this popularity unprecedented rates — and has been a collection of that has higher average improbable household disposable income than any names, together reviving previous group of teens and the faded practice of 20-somethings — and the transforming American popularity of food studies, food- culture through robust related public service passions and intellectual engagement. haute-food consumption among today’s Michael Pollan’s “The college students and recent graduates snaps Omnivore’s Dilemma: A more clearly into focus. 4 WAKE FOREST MAGAZINE FEATURES THUS BOTH HIGH AND LOW CULTURES HAVE CONVERGED OVER THE PAST DECADE OR SO ON THE IMPORTANCE OF FOOD, A SERIOUS SUBJECT FOR DINERS, DO-GOODERS AND CULTURE CRITICS ALIKE. Here at Wake Forest, examples of engagement with this schools, from the divinity school’s landmark “Food and Faith” New Food Culture (to coin a phrase) abound, often with program to joint efforts by medical school and health/exercise our signature Pro Humanitate twist. When a popular local science faculty to address diabetes, pediatric obesity and other pediatrician and her husband, a distinguished federal judge, growing health concerns. launched a venture designed to deliver nutritious meals to low-income children, Wake Foresters — including a sizable Our students and newest alumni also carry this deep interest number of football players — immediately signed on to in food far beyond campus.