James Beard Foundation

Profile for the James Beard Foundation:

At 89 years old, Joan Dye Gussow doesn’t hesitate to claim her place within the food movement. “I was completely a renegade nutritionist when I entered the field,” she says. “I was talking about things that nobody else talked about, connecting the food system with eating.” Five decades after she joined the nutrition program at Teachers College, Columbia University, Gussow is still teaching there, still speaking out about flaws in the food system—and still inspiring a growing roster of food activists to follow in her footsteps.