Emily Sigman, MF/MA
Year:
2021
Graduate school:
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs
Position(s):
Global food fellow, summer 2018
More about Emily’s global food fellowship:
Location: Russia
Research question: Why are Russian fruit markets so diverse—in both products and the people selling them—and how does this diversity sit in the wider context of socio-ecological resilience?
Project description: I spent a lot of time talking with vendors in informal (i.e. street) Russian fruit markets about their produce, where they sourced it from, and what motivates them to sell it. I also documented the different varieties of foods and prices. I found a host of really interesting stories about the connections people have to food and to place, even when both are far away.
Notable fellowship moment: I remember talking with a bunch of women at a midnight market while they told me how proud they were to be illegal berry vendors and regaled me with stories of running from police with baskets full of mushrooms (the edible kind).
Favorite fellowship meal: Chanterelles and wild strawberries from the forest.
New questions arising from Emily’s work: What role does literature play in motivating the berry-women to keep selling their produce illegally?
Emily’s other interests: Agroforestry, mushroom foraging, gardening, raising quails, hiking, yoga, plant and fungal communication, learning languages, Russian history and culture
This photo depicts but a small sample of the many kinds of berries found in Russia's informal fruit markets. Shown here are two different varieties of blueberry, three types of raspberry, and a multitude of different gooseberries. These berries come from woody, perennial plants typically grown on dachas in agro-ecological polycultures. Such plants sequester carbon in their biomass, and contribute to the provision of many other demonstrated environmental benefits.
Emily Sigman, MF/MA '21, spent the summer in Russia studying Advanced Russian and conducting research on Saint Petersburg's unique, multicultural and perennial fruit markets. Emily stands in front of a typical kiosk featuring stonefruits imported and sold through Central Asian networks.