Watch UC Berkeley’s Free “Edible Education 101” Lecture Course, Featuring Michael Pollan, Alice Waters and Other Sustainable Food Superstars

Din­ner at Berkeley’s famed Chez Panisse shows up on a lot of foodie’s buck­et lists. Its founder, Alice Waters, has been pro­mot­ing the impor­tance of eat­ing organ­i­cal­ly and local­ly for near­ly half a cen­tu­ry.

With the Edi­ble School­yard Project, she found a way to share these beliefs in true hands-on fash­ion, by involv­ing thou­sands of chil­dren and teens in kitchens and gar­dens across the coun­try.

We will all ben­e­fit from this rev­o­lu­tion, though I can’t help but envy the kids at its epi­cen­ter. Back when Waters was pio­neer­ing Cal­i­for­nia cui­sine, I was suf­fer­ing under my school lunchroom’s manda­to­ry “cour­tesy bite” pol­i­cy. The remem­bered aro­ma of Sal­is­bury steak and instant mashed pota­toes still acti­vates my gag reflex.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of California’s Edi­ble Edu­ca­tion 101 course has been con­tin­u­ing the Edi­ble Schoolyard’s work at the col­le­giate lev­el since 2011. It’s a glo­ri­ous anti­dote to the culi­nary trau­mas expe­ri­enced by ear­li­er gen­er­a­tions. UC Berke­ley stu­dents can take Edi­ble Edu­ca­tion 101 for cred­it. The pub­lic is wel­come to sit in on lec­tures fea­tur­ing a pan­theon of sus­tain­able food super­stars, includ­ing Waters, author Michael Pol­lan of The Omnivore’s Dilem­ma, above, and course leader Mark Bittman (you know him from The New York Times and his new start­up The Pur­ple Car­rot).

For­tu­nate­ly for those of us whose buck­et list splurge at Chez Panisse requires such addi­tion­al expens­es as plane tick­ets and hotel rooms, many of the lec­tures are also view­able online.

The range of top­ics make clear that edi­ble edu­ca­tion is not sim­ply a mat­ter of learn­ing to choose a local­ly grown por­to­bel­lo over a Big Mac.  Trans­porta­tion, tech­nol­o­gy, mar­ket­ing, and pubic pol­i­cy all fac­tor into the goal of mak­ing healthy, equi­tably farmed food avail­able to all at an a non-Chez Panisse price.

A com­plete playlist of 2015’s Edi­ble Edu­ca­tion 101 lec­tures is here, or stream them right above. A list of 2016’s top­ics and guest lec­tur­ers is here. The Edi­ble Edu­ca­tion lec­tures will be added to our col­lec­tion, 1,700 Free Online Cours­es from Top Uni­ver­si­ties.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Michael Pol­lan Presents an Edi­ble Edu­ca­tion, A Free Online Course From UC Berke­ley

Michael Pol­lan Explains How Cook­ing Can Change Your Life; Rec­om­mends Cook­ing Books, Videos & Recipes

The New York Times Makes 17,000 Tasty Recipes Avail­able Online: Japan­ese, Ital­ian, Thai & Much More

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an author, illus­tra­tor, and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday