Brian Halweil

Brian Halweil (born 1975) is an American sustainable food writer and researcher. He is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Edible East End, Edible Brooklyn, Edible Manhattan and Edible Long Island magazines, devoted to chronicling the food communities in and around New York City. Previously, Halweil was a senior fellow at the Worldwatch Institute, where his work focused on organic farming, biotechnology, hunger, seafood and rural communities.
His writing has been published in Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, and International Herald Tribune, among others. In 2015, Halweil was named a "40 Under 40" Business Leader by Long Island Business News for his commitment to the local community and the local food movements.
Halweil has traveled and lived in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and East Africa learning indigenous farming techniques and promoting sustainable food production. He currently lives in Sag Harbor, NY, where he and his family keep a home garden and orchard, and raise ducks and oysters.

Education

Halweil graduated with honors from Stanford University with a BS in earth systems and biology, and also completed coursework in agriculture and soil science at University of California, Davis. In college, he worked with California farmers interested in reducing their pesticide use, and set up a 2-acre student-run organic farm on the campus of Stanford University. He conducted undergraduate research in Mexico and Cuba, and completed his honors thesis on Biointensive farming in those regions.

Career

Worldwatch Institute

After completing his education in California, Halweil went on to work as a Senior Researcher for Worldwatch Institute in Washington D.C. There he conducted research and wrote on issues related to food and agriculture, ranging from water scarcity to organic farming, from transgenic crops to hunger. He authored articles for Worldwatch Magazine, and chapters for the Institute's books, State of the World and Vital Signs. He served as Director for the Nourishing the Planet project, a 2-year research effort on global hunger supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Halweil continues to work at Worldwatch Institute as a senior fellow.

Edible magazines

Halweil is the publisher and editor-in-chief at Edible East End, Edible Brooklyn, Edible Long Island, and Edible Manhattan magazines. He also helped to launch Edible East End in 2005, Edible Brooklyn in 2006, Edible Manhattan in 2008, and Edible Long Island in 2013, which are all part of the national network Edible Communities. Halweil contributes regularly to these titles and serves as a spokesperson for the network. Additionally, Halweil has been a proponent of the local food movement and established several community food organizations including the East End coalition of School Gardens, the Food Lab at Stony Brook Southampton, and Slow Food East End. Long Island Business News recognized his efforts by naming him one of the "40 Under 40" Business Leaders in 2015.

Other activities

Halweil serves as a board member to the Food Tank: The Food Think Tank. The organization, founded by Danielle Nierenberg, spotlights environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty and works to create networks of people, organizations, and content to push for food system change.

Additionally, Halweil is a board member of Slow Money NYC, a national non-profit organization supporting local food enterprises and organic farms. He also works with Stony Brook University's Food Lab.

Public speaking

Halweil has spoken on food and agriculture issues at national and international events. He was the a keynote speaker at the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) annual meeting, and also provided keynote address to the Urban Zen teacher training in New York City. He presented at the inaugural TEDxManhattan in 2011 on the local food movement and issues with the global food system.

Personal life

Halweil was born in Middletown, New York. His family moved to New York City when he was a child and he attended the Allen-Stevenson School and then Trinity School.

Halweil is married to Sarah Halweil, a registered nurse who directs the Urban Zen Integrated Therapy program at Southampton Hospital. He and his family moved to Sag Harbor, New York, where they keep a home garden and orchard. They also raise oysters as part of Cornell's Southold Project in Aquaculture Training program.

He and his wife are the founders of the Sag Harbor Farmers Market, the first farmers market on the East End, which inspired many subsequent markets. Halweil also serves on the board of several food-related organizations in the region, including the Wholesome Wave Foundation and Edible School Gardens of the East End. He is also a "Creative Collaborator" with the Parrish Art Museum.

Selected bibliography

• Articles in general press: "The Kindest Cut," New York Times, July 4, 2012; “Bonac Clam Pie,” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, May 1, 2005; "Shop in Your Backyard," New York Times, 6 March 2005; My Floating Garden (Organic Gardening magazine, October/November 2014); Who's Afraid of Egg-less Mayo? (Edible Manhattan November 2014); "Vintners Go Back to Organic Basics,” New York Times, 8 August 2004; "Why No One Wins in the Global Food Fight," Washington Post, 21 September 2003; "Microbial Migrations," Orion, Summer 2001; "Biotech Industry Faces Financial Turmoil," Tomorrow, April 2000; "Portrait of an Industry in Trouble," Yes, Spring 2000.
• Editorials and Articles for WorldWatch magazine: "The War of Words and Images," July/August 2002; "A Win-win-win-win Industry for the Tropics," May/June 2002; "Biotech, African Corn, and the Vampire Weed," September/October 2001; "Setting the Cheez Whiz Standard," November/December 2000; "Where Have All the Farmers Gone?," September/October 2000; "Escaping Hunger, Escaping Excess," July/August 2000; "Politically Modified Foods," May/June 2000; "The Emperor's New Clothes," July/August 1999; "U.S. Intransigence on Biosafety," May/June 1999; "The Unintended Effects of Bt-Crops," January/February 1999; "On July 4th, U.S. Leads World Meat Stampede," July/August 1998; "China's Water Shortage Could Shake World Food Security," with Lester Brown, July/August 1998; "Bioserfdom and the New Feudalism," May/June 1998; "Richard Nixon Gives the Peace Sign," March/April 1998; "USDA Organic: 100% Farmer-Free," March/April 1998.
• Miscellaneous op-ed's on farm subsidies, population growth, meat consumption, organic farming, and water shortages, published in Washington Post, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Christian Science Monitor, and International Herald Tribune.
• Papers: Brian Halweil: "Home Grown: The Case for Global Food in a Local Market," Worldwatch Paper 163, November 2002; Critical Issue Report: Still No Free Lunch (Organic Center, September 2007); Gary Gardner and Brian Halweil, "Underfed and Overfed: The Global Epidemic of Malnutrition," Worldwatch Paper 150, March 2000; Lester Brown, Gary Gardner, and Brian Halweil, “Beyond Malthus: 16 Dimensions of the Population Challenge,” Worldwatch Paper 143, September 1998; Brian Halweil, "Huertos Familiares, Biointensive Farming in Mexico: Household Food Production as a Means to Improve Health, Income, and the Environment," submitted to the Goldman Honors Program in Environmental Science, Technology, and Policy, 14 May 1997, Institute for International Studies, Stanford University.

Books:

• Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket, W.W. Norton (2004)
• Vital Signs, W.W. Norton (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 editions)
• State of the World, W.W. Norton (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 editions)
• Lester Brown, Gary Gardner, and Brian Halweil, Beyond Malthus: 19 Dimensions of the Population Challenge, W.W. Norton, 1999
• Food and Agriculture: The Future of Sustainability (2012).