On March 14, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt issued an executive order setting aside Pelican Island, Florida, as the very first national wildlife refuge. Today, it remains an essential breeding ground for migratory waterfowl—and one of 561 wildlife refuges overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Daniel M. Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, recently discussed what Pelican Island is like today.

With countless restaurants and food markets, New Yorkers may have a more effortlessly sophisticated palate than ever, but do they really have a nuanced understanding of the global forces that shape the politics and economics of food?  “The world of food is rife with paradox,” says Frederick Kaufman. Kaufman, a noted journalist and professor, will join a lively Museum panel about the global, technological, and financial future of food on Tuesday, March 5, at 6:30 pm.

From carrots to cassava, root vegetables are enjoying a culinary renaissance; this Thursday, December 13, at 6:30 pm, noted New York chef and Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli will be at the Museum for a special Adventures in the Global Kitchen program devoted to how to cook and eat root vegetables, why they’re a lynchpin of biodiversity, and much more. She will be joined by Eleanor Sterling, co-curator of the Museum's new exhibition Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture.

In the Museum's new special exhibition Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture, an early edition of the American classic Joy of Cooking, first published in 1931 by Irma S. Rombauer, is featured in a wall of cookbooks, from ancient to modern. We recently spoke to John Becker, a great-grandson of Rombauer, who with others in his family still works to edit and develop the "all-purpose" cookbook.