Joan Dye Gussow

Joan Dye Gussow (born 1928) is a professor, author, food policy expert, environmentalist and gardener. The New York Times has called her the "matriarch of the eat-locally-think-globally food movement."

Biography

Born in 1928 in Alhambra, California, Gussow grew up in a California landscape dominated by clear skies, orange groves, peach orchards and lines of eucalyptus trees. She graduated from Pomona College in Claremont, California in 1950, with a BA (pre-medical) and moved east to New York City. In 1956, she married Alan Gussow (1931–1997). Gussow spent seven years as a researcher at Time Magazine and five years as a suburban wife and mother. After becoming a researcher at Yeshiva’s Graduate School of Education, she returned to school in 1969 to earn an M.Ed and an Ed. D. in Nutrition Education from Columbia’s Teachers College. Shortly after graduating, she was hired by Teachers College to become the chair of the nutrition department, creating the legendary course, Nutritional Ecology.