Corby Kummer

The Tom Lehrer I Knew The musical satirist died at 97. Corby Kummer looks back.

Here's my remembrance of the great Tom Lehrer for @airmail.news. For someone ferociously unsentimental, he was an extremely loving and loyal friend. airmail.news/issues/2025-...

Boston Public Radio Live, Tuesday July 29, 2025 YouTube video by GBH News

Just wrapped a live conversation with Jim and Margery on Boston Public Radio! From the clever satire of Tom Lehrer to the heroic efforts of Chef Jose Andres and World Central Kitchen in Gaza.

Watch: www.youtube.com/live/8qNDbSO...
#FoodNews #BostonPublicRadios

Thrilled to have moderated an incredible panel at Aspen Ideas Climate with: Michelle Egger @GriffithFoods, Melanie Chow Li @danonenorthamerica, and Ilana Braverman at Greener by Default shared powerful insights on transforming our food system. #FoodInnovation #ClimateAction #SustainableFood

Boston Public Radio Live from Brighton, Thursday, July 24, 2025 YouTube video by GBH News

Today's segment on Boston Public Radio covered cane sugar cokes, Jacques Pépin’s 90th birthday spectacular, ice cream-flation, and federal directives to have the USDA hand over data on food stamp recipients.

Here's the video: www.youtube.com/live/gimLDVm...

Honored to be in the best possible company with Alice Waters on the new book by Carlo Petrini, founder of @slowfoodhq.bsky.social! Everyone who cares about food and food systems should read it.

In-person gatherings create a sense of community, breaking down isolation and sparking positive conflict that can lead to solutions. Grateful for partners Ardmore Institute of Health and Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine!
More: aspenfood.org/fim/shaper-d...
@aspenfood.bsky.social

Why thank you!

This moment from our conversation, when he talked about changing from encouraging beauty rather than berating his staff for not meeting his standards—as he’d learned, as he’d done itself—shows why our conversation was so memorable. Do listen to the whole thing.

YouTube video by The Aspen Institute Culinary Conversation: Eric Ripert

No conversation I had at Aspen Ideas had festivalgoers as excited as with Chef Eric Ripert. And they were right. He’s as open and soulful as he is gifted as a chef—which is why so many people reserve #LeBernardinNY for meals and times they want to be truly special.

When Food Leaders Fellows conspired to bring their cohort to Starkville, MS, the first cross-cohort reunion walked rain-soaked sweet potato fields, watched a robot pick raspberries, and returned full of ideas for the future of food.

Subscribe: confirmsubscription.com/h/y/BECCA040...

Tariffs on Brazil Could Leave Coffee Drinkers With a Headache

More uncertainty over tariff whims. Vietnam, eg, grows mostly high-caffeine, low-flavor robusta vs the more satisfying and subtle arabica of Brazil.

Surprise: in May the avg price of ground roast coffee was $7.93, vs $5.99 a year before. That's before new tariffs.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/b...

How to Panic Italians? Jack Up the Price of Espresso.

Charming piece on espresso bars in Italy, rightly focused on Turin, best caffe city in Italy. Coffee still extremely cheap, esp by international standards. Most surprising: caffes rely on coffee for only 30% of revenues. High brioche markups apparently.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/12/w...

Up the Down Staircase! Need to retrieve extremely worn paperback in childhood-bedroom bookcase. (Then listen to Fiddler.)

Food Leaders Fellowship - Food & Society The fellowship experience Food & Society's Food Leaders Fellowship unites the country's most promising early-stage food system leaders to ignite personal transformation, cross-sector collaboration, and scalable change. Drawing on the Aspen Institute's history of successful leadership and policy fellowships, the Food Leaders Fellowship is the foremost community of emerging

Grateful to @msstate for hosting our Food Leaders Fellowship! Special shout-out to fellows Hunt and Seanicaa for bringing authentic local perspective to our gathering. Watch the video: aspenfood.org/food-l...

Celebrating four years of the @aspenfood.bsky.social Leaders Fellowship! Excited by the growth, connections, and impact of these emerging food leaders. Their stories inspire me. Learn more: aspenfood.org/food-leaders... #FoodLeadersFellowship

As a result of the @aspenfood.bsky.social Food Leaders Fellowship, Jon Muth followed his dream to start a coffee roaster that would feature and support smallholder coffee growers. He showed Aspen Ideas goers how professionals cup coffee cupping using his special #AspenIdeas blend.

How did a tiny Mexico City taqueria win the first Michelin star for a taco? A particularly soulful owner, Mario Hernandez Alonso, who told me that our Aspen Ideas Culinary Conversation made him feel important. He was the most important person there.
#michelinguide

Grateful to have Sam Landercasper, Jon Muth, and Eden Vardy join me at #AspenIdeas for our first ever roundtable sessions! Meet Sam, Jon, Eden and all their fellow fellows: aspenfood.org/our-fellows

#FoodLeadersFellows #AspenIdeas #FoodSystemsLeadership

Christina Tosi with Corby Kummer at Aspen Ideas festival, June 2025

Christina Tosi and Corby on stage for a Culinary Conversation at Aspen Ideas festival, June 2025

Christina Tosi was a basket of sunshine at our #AspenIdeas Culinary Conversation, making every single person want #Milkbar cereal ice cream and cookies on the spot. But they did get a taste of her five-ingredient, who’d-think-it-was vegan chocolate peanut butter crunch pie!
@aspenfood.bsky.social

🌟 DREAM BIG, TEMECULA VALLEY!
Remember that food idea you've been thinking about? It's time to make it real.

Open Access Temecula Valley is now available for food entrepreneurs! Check it out: ow.ly/gnOm50Wh1ah

Thrilled to discuss #FoodIsMedicine at Aspen Ideas Health with amazing panelists: Hilary Seligman, John Lumpkin, and Wendy Slusser. Envisioning accessible good food for all!

Watch: aspenfood.org/corby-kummer...
#PublicHealth #FoodAccess

Seanicca Edwards Herron, a black American woman smiles at the podium. She is a wearing an off the shoulder, pastel floral printed evening gown. The clear podium has a black sign that reads, 2025 James Beard Awards sponsored by Capital One. The numbers 75 are in gold and yellow. Seanicaa, Founder and Executive Director of Freedmen Heirs Foundation Inc, received the James Beard Foundation's first Impact Award on June 16, 2025.

Aspen Food Leaders Fellows (left to right) Kendra Levine, Global Restaurant Sustainability Director, McDonald's; Lindsey Allen, Environmental Sustainability Manager, Food & Supply Chain, Disney Experiences; Seanicaa Edwards Herron, Founder & Executive Director, Freedmen Heirs Foundation, Inc and James Beard Foundation Impact Award honoree; Anne McBride, Anne McBride, Vice President of Programs, James Beard Foundation; and Julia Luscombe, Vice President, Strategic Planning & Portfolio Management, Feeding America. They stand before a white black drop with black lettering that reads, 2025 James Beard Foundation Awards and the Capital One logo.

Congratulations to @aspenfood.bsky.social Food Leaders Fellow Seanicaa Edwards Herron on receiving the inaugural 2025 James Beard Foundation Impact Award! We're so proud and honored to call you friend.

More: aspenfood.org/fellow/seani...
#FoodLeadersFellow #JamesBeardFoundation

Remarkable shift in public opinion against food industry. Also remarkable that @nbcnews.com poll asked about socioeconomic status. www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Aviation Report: An Example of Honesty, and One of Deceit. William Langewiesche, famed writer and aviator, was the real thing. The man chosen to lead US aviation is not.

Lovely appreciation of the late William Langewiesche by fellow pilot @jfallows.bsky.social, who makes you understand the potent eloquence of his writing by quoting generous amounts of it. fallows.substack.com/p/aviation-r...

Representatives of Aspen Food Leaders Fellows (left to right): Ronnie Webb, Jillian Griffith, Tariq Sheriff, Corby Kummer (executive director of Food & Society at the Aspen Institute), Krystal Register, Richard Comeau, and Brent Ling

Stacy Dean of the Global Food Institute stands at the podium with the yellow sign, Partnership for a Healthier America. Behind her is a backdrop screen with the title, Good Food Summit

A conference room filled with people seated at round tables for the Good Food for All Summit 2025 hosted by Partnership for a Healthier America. They are looking at a speaker on stage with a backdrop image with a photo of a child and adult preparing food and the title, Good Food for All Summit.

A FIRST! All four cohorts of Food Leaders Fellows together at Good Food for All Summit 2025 by Partnership for a Healthier America!

The energy is electric seeing cohorts 1-4 connecting & collaborating. Shoutout to Stacy Dean always compelling & on point!

#FoodLeadersFellows #GoodFoodForAll

On Boston Public Radio we discussed the Dirty Dozen - produce with highest pesticide residues. Key tips: Choose organic for Dirty Dozen items & wash all produce thoroughly, especially a surprising culprit. Listen: aspenfood.org/2025/06/13/c... #DirtyDozen #HealthyEating

5 food power players have strong ties to the MAHA movement Companies like Sweetgreen, Daily Harvest, and Thrive Market have strong ties to MAHA leaders, including Casey and Calley Means.

Our terrific @aspenfood fellow Marie Bragg in excellent @statnews.com piece on new MAHA-food business alliances:
“If we can drink less soda, eat less fast food, and more from companies that promote vegetables and other nutritious foods, it’s going to help health."
www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/m...

RFK Jr. to tell medical schools to teach nutrition or lose federal funding Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to tell medical schools they must offer nutrition courses to students or risk losing federal funding from the DHS.

Required nutrition ed has long been high on wish lists, including ours @aspenfood.bsky.social. If #FoodIsMedicine, who better to help patients avoid food-related illnesses than frontline doctors?

The problem is the disconnected patchwork of good programs now in place. abcnews.go.com/Politics/rfk...

As always, @hbottemiller.bsky.social has key insights. Today's: SNAP fight is an attempt to uncouple food assistance from farm assistance. Ending this perennially uneasy but essential alliance will be bad for everyone except big ag. foodfix.co

Did you know that many bottled waters come from municipal sources? Margery, Jim, and I discussed some eye-opening insights about the bottled water industry that challenge our perceptions!

More: ow.ly/GIwW50W96Sf
#BostonPublicRadio
#BottledWater #PremiumWater