Emily Morgan

Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar

Media Profile

The heavy reliance of conventional farming and food distribution systems on chemical and mechanical inputs has resulted in pollution to soil, water, and the air, three resources necessary to produce the world’s food supply.

Emily Morgan, is one of fifteen Americans to be granted a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship to Australia in 2007. A Mount Holyoke College graduate, Emily will carry out her Fulbright research on environmentally-conscious nutrition education in the School of Exercise and Nutrition of Sciences at Deakin University in Melbourne.

The aim of Emily’s Fulbright Scholarship is to conduct research in the emerging field of environmentally-conscious nutrition education. Emily will examine the relationship that consumers perceive to exist between the current food supply system and environmental problems, and how best to expand the nutrition field to incorporate an awareness of the problems.

“In the last twenty years, nutrition educators have begun examining how to approach increasingly complex issues in their teaching. The predominant questions that these educators are asking have largely focused on the interface between nutrition and medicine. However, some nutrition education professionals have begun asking questions that instead look at the relationship between dietary choices and the protection of natural resources.”

Emily will conduct her research with internationally renowned expert in nutrition promotion and psychology Dr Anthony Worsley at Deakin University. “Dr Worsley and I designed a research project aimed at examining consumer concerns over the long-term maintenance of the food supply and how health and nutrition professionals can increase consumer’s awareness of the relationship between food, health, and the environment.”

“Together we will collect and analyse data on the public’s perception of the relationship between environmental degradation and the food supply system. In tandem we will research how to best educate consumers about the existing relationship so that they can make informed food choices.”

Prior to beginning her Fulbright Scholarship, Emily will begin her masters degree in Agriculture, Food, and the Environment at Tufts University`s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Following the completion of this degree and her Fulbright Scholarship she has been accepted to the Tufts School of Medicine to complete a Masters of Public Health.

Emily has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Sally Montgomery Community-based Learning Award (2006), the Claire Bates Davidson Scholarship (2006), Bernice Maclean Award (2005) and the Environmental Scholar Award (2006). She also co-authored a report, Walmartization for Food Retailing in Mexico.