'Poverty and Food Security in the U.S. and at Home' topic of 'k(no)w poverty?' lecture series

Michelle Worosz, a food and agriculture sociologist at Auburn University, will give a public talk on "Poverty and Food Security in the U.S. and at Home" as part of the Honors College "k(no)w poverty? lecture series Monday, March 9, at 6 p.m. in Langdon Hall. Worosz is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology and the Food Systems Institute at Auburn University.

The event is part of a series of discussions on issues relevant to poverty in the community, region, state and world and has been developed by the Honors College at Auburn University to support the university's land-grant mission. Participants are asked to bring non-perishable food items for the Campus Food Pantry.

Worosz' research focuses on agrifood system governance. Her work in Alabama has included studies of the effects of formal statutes and regulations and informal rules and habits on the state's small-scale beef and seafood industries. More recent efforts have centered on food security including a community food assessment of Macon County and surveys of Alabamians' opinions about access and availability of food and their attitudes toward local foods.

Worosz holds both a master's degree and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University where she focused on sustainable farming systems and conducted a series of studies on pest management and fruit production. She also worked in the Food Safety Policy Center and the Institute for Food Laws and Regulations at MSU. She has published in a range of peer-reviewed journals such as Food Policy, Agriculture and Human Values and the Journal of Consumer Affairs. She also is a recipient of the 2013 Rural Sociological Society Excellence in Instruction award and the 2014 Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station Director's Junior Research Award.