Author: Anne Martin

Anne graduated from Duke in May 2015 with a degree in Environmental Science and Policy. Growing up in Iowa, Anne spent a lot of time outdoors: playing sports, trail running, cross-country skiing, hiking, and camping. In the summer, she helped her dad raise their vegetable garden, picked berries, and tended a few of the fruit trees—activities that provided rich, flavorful, homegrown meals for her family throughout the summer and fall months. It wasn’t until she came to Duke that she began to realize how rare her childhood experiences were. Since college, Anne has worked to encourage people to reconnect with their food and with nature. Anne hopes that by examining her own choices, life challenges, and experiences, she can help others to consider the innumerable ways in which they consciously and unconsciously play an important role in this world. Anne has been a proponent of changing the U.S. food system, and particularly many of the current industrial agricultural practices, for some time. Traveling to Haiti four years ago, she first witnessed the devastating effects of long-term extractive agricultural techniques on human and environmental health. She has committed herself to a career in food and farm policy, and to changing the way food is raised, produced, and valued. On campus, Anne served as president of the Duke student group Food for Thought, an organization dedicated to improving access to local, organic, fair, ecologically sound, and humane food on campus. She has also worked as a member of the Duke Sustainable Food Committee and pursued an academic focus in agricultural sustainability—culminating in an independent study at the Duke Campus Farm. Last summer, Anne participated in the Farming Institute, an intensive 9-week program designed to teach young people the ins and outs of small-scale organic farming. This year, Anne is spending ten months in Costa Rica as a member of the Hart Fellows Program, researching barriers to sustainable food production in the country. Outside of school and work, Anne enjoys running, kayaking, biking, hiking, and all number of other outdoor activities. No matter where she goes, Anne hopes to continue to engage in research, travel, pursue advocacy work, and stay involved with food and farming.

Anne Martin
July 6, 2016October 24, 2016 Anne Martinalumni, climate, conservation, environmental health, environmental policy, ESC, forests, marine studies, sustainability, travel, water

San Juan Islands

Heading out of San Francisco, my boyfriend and I met my parents in Washington state for a five-day sea kayaking trip in the San Juan Islands. We’d been hoping to meet them up there inContinue reading

Beginnings of an Adventure

First days on the road!

Time in the Natural World

Truthfully, a lot of what is going on in the world, and a lot of what I study, is fundamentally violent. But paying attention to the violence we as a species continue to both consciously and unconsciously enact upon our Earth and each other only makes my walks in the woods feel ever more essential. I rely on the spiritual experience that the wilds provide me—the chance to go home—as a source of restoration and a reminder of our boundless power and agency to create change.

A New Year

I’m ready to go as far and for as long as we can. My only expectation is to come back different.

New Beginnings

These are incredible times to be an environmentalist. Of course it’s hard—we’re up against some of the greatest challenges this Earth has ever faced—and the majority of these trials and predicaments human-created. Still, when someone says, “It’s really hard right now”, I can’t help but think that, well, of course it is. That’s why we’re here, right now. We’ve been given us this time and this space and these battles because we are the people for whom they belong.

Lessons from Woods

I still have hope that each generation may be wiser than the last, that there are people of all nations committed to making this world home again. I’m open to letting a dream carry us into the future…convinced that real change may come in acts of healing.

Lessons from the Road

Be it the vision of the Amazon, or a view from the shore of a different sea…soil of a different texture or a tree with bark made of colors we have never before witnessed…a language we don’t know or a new alignment of the stars…may we be thankful for the time to reflect, and the chance to stand in wonder of life, to bask in the newness…thankful for the reminder that we are alive.

The Sour Side of Pineapple Production

Costa Rica has developed an international reputation for being an especially green, environmentally-minded country. It’s reforestation efforts, extensive national park system, wildlife protections, and renewable energy goals have made it a leader in environmental management.

Unfortunately, the agricultural and food production practices employed by the country’s large-scale producers (and increasingly many small-scale producers as well) are not aligned with these policies.

Anne Martin
March 23, 2016October 24, 2016 Anne Martinalumni, ESC

From Dawn to Dusk: A Beautiful Year

I can only hope that every year has this kind of an impact on me—that every year finds me in new places, meeting new people, and trying new things. That every year challenges me. That I remember again and again how to be uncomfortable. That I lose myself and find again. That I hold tight to this sense of love and responsibility to this Earth and her children.

It’s essential to get lost. Sometimes it’s the only way to find out where we belong.

The Fate of Pollinators

Food production around the world faces a major threat: the disappearance of pollinator species. Why, rather than shrinking at the possibility of a multi-faceted problem, we have not responded with multifaceted solutions?