🎧 Regenerative Farming and Climate Action with Dr. John De La Parra
What does the future hold for our food systems? This week, we learn about new science initiatives examining the intersection between climate & food systems.
This week on the podcast, we learn more about the exciting initiatives underway on climate action, regenerative agriculture, and food science supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. I speak with Dr. John de la Parra, an ethnobotanist and chemist with expertise in food crops and medicinal plants. John drives programming, grantmaking, performance, and partnership within the Rockefeller Foundation Food Portfolio, including the development of the Periodic Table of Food.
About John
Dr. John de la Parra is an ethnobotanist and plant chemist with expertise in food crops and medicinal plants. He is past President of the Society for Economic Botany. He is Director, Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation where he works to advance a more nourishing, regenerative, and just food system. He drives programming, grantmaking, performance, and partnership within the Food Portfolio, including the development of the Periodic Table of Food.
John regularly delivers lectures and short courses on ethnobotany, food system innovation, agriculture, and medicinal plants. He is a former Associate at the Harvard University Herbaria where his work focused on understanding how indigenous peoples use plants for food and medicine. While at Harvard, he redeveloped the legendary course “Plants and Human Affairs”, which has been taught at Harvard since 1876 and represents the oldest course in the United States focused on plants and their uses. He has held additional appointments as a Research Scientist at MIT, a Lecturer of Environmental Studies at Tufts University, and a Lecturer of Biotechnology at Northeastern University.
John grew up on a farm in rural Alabama, with his family originating in México and South America. His grandmother’s early teachings on plants inspired him to become an ethnobotanist working with indigenous populations to understand how phenotypic selection influences plant-based drug discovery and food choice.
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Watch the video
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Yours in health, Dr. Quave
Cassandra L. Quave, Ph.D. is a scientist, author, speaker, podcast host, wife, mother, explorer, and professor at Emory University School of Medicine. She teaches college courses and leads a group of research scientists studying medicinal plants to find new life-saving drugs from nature. She hosts the Foodie Pharmacology podcast and writes the Nature’s Pharmacy newsletter to share the science behind natural medicines. To support her effort, consider a paid or founding subscription, with founding members receiving an autographed 1st edition hardcover copy of her book, The Plant Hunter.