Sex, Salmonella, and Beetles: Epidemiologist shares how eating bugs could save the world

By College Relations | April 1, 2019
           

Okanagan College Media Release

What do food, sex and salmonella have in common? How will eating insects help save the planet? Award-winning author and veterinary epidemiologist David Waltner-Toews will share his insights during an upcoming talk as part of Okanagan College’s Speakers Series.

Waltner-Toews’s reading will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, May 13 in the theatre at The Innovation Centre at 460 Doyle Ave. in Kelowna.

“Eating is our most intimate relationship with the world, and good intimate relationships require commitment,” explains Waltner-Toews. “We must ask of our food, ‘where were you before you came to my table, and where will you be tomorrow?’”

Waltner-Toews has published more than 20 books, including poetry, short stories, a murder mystery, six books of popular science, and several texts on ecosystem approaches to health. His most recent book,
Eat the Beetles!, challenges us to think about our attitude toward insects, and whether eating them might help solve the planet’s environmental problems.

A professor emeritus at the University of Guelph, Waltner-Toews was founding president of Veterinarians without Borders Canada, of the Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health, and a founding member of Communities of Practice for Ecosystem Approaches to Health in Canada. He is also the recipient of the inaugural award for contributions to ecosystem approaches to health from The International Association for Ecology and Health.

Waltner-Toews will be reading from his 2008 book,
Food, Sex and Salmonella: Why Our Food is Making Us Sick, and will answer questions about Eat the Beetles!, The Origin of Feces: What Excrement Tells Us about Evolution, Ecology, and Sustainable Society, and his other books.

This reading is presented by Okanagan College and supported by the Writers’ Union of Canada’s National Public Readings Program and the Okanagan Regional Library.

Admission is free, but space is limited so please register in advance on Eventbrite
.

Donations of non-perishable food or hygiene products will be gratefully accepted to help Okanagan College students in need as part of The Pantry food bank project at the Kelowna campus coordinated by the Okanagan College Students’ Union.

 




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