Breadfruit: Rooting Key West in the History and Future of the Tropical World with Dr. Russell Fielding
Breadfruit is a tropical fruit tree with a rich and complex global legacy, both dark and heroic. The starchy fruit it produces in abundance has fueled two global migrations: one of bold and daring exploration, the other of cruel forced displacement. Today, breadfruit holds new promise as a climate-resilient crop and sustainable food source, simultaneously offering potential solutions for food security and novel culinary opportunities. Despite horticultural challenges and lingering cultural stigmas, its future looks bright. Key West, long the breadfruit capital of the continental United States, now finds itself at the forefront of a quiet breadfruit revolution as rising global temperatures make this ancient tree newly relevant in a warming world.
About the Presenter:
Russell Fielding is a Florida native and an environmental geographer whose research focuses on sustainable food systems in the coastal and island settings of our changing world. A former Fulbright scholar at the University of Prince Edward Island’s Institute of Island Studies, Fielding holds graduate degrees in geography from Louisiana State University and the University of Montana, as well as an undergraduate degree from the University of Florida. Fielding is the author of two books: The Wake of the Whale (Harvard University Press, 2018) and Breadfruit (Columbia University Press, 2025), as well as numerous academic and popular articles. He is an Associate Professor at Coastal Carolina University with joint appointments in the Department of Anthropology & Geography and the HTC Honors College while holding a research position with the Ocean Nexus Program at the University of Rhode Island.
- Date: March 19
- Time: 6:00pm - 7:00pm
- Cost: $13.00 - $17.00
- Location: Tropic Cinema
