The ESPM Graduate Research Symposium (Gradfest) is an annual event in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management that celebrates and showcases graduate student research. The 2015 Gradfest keynote lecture was an extended Q&A Session with award-winning journalist and New York Times columnist Mark Bittman. A leading voice in the food movement, Bittman has written for the New York Times for 30 years, currently as a columnist for the Op‐Ed pages, the Magazine, and the Food section. His books include the now‐standard How to Cook Everything, as well as the groundbreaking Food Matters and Vegan Before 6:00 (VB6), which debuted at #1 on the Times Best Seller list. Bittman was a visiting scholar at the Berkeley Food Institute in spring 2015; he also co-hosted several lectures in the popular Edible Education 101 course.