Meet the Team: Abbe McCarter, Indigenous Peoples’ Liaison Intern

Abbe McCarter joined our Washington office as an Intern in June of 2021, after completing the first year of her Masters of Public Health in Human Nutrition from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. We asked Abbe a few questions to learn more about her and how she developed her passion for sustainable and equitable food systems.    

1. What led you to work at FAO? What do you like most about your internship?    

After graduating from Emory University, I went on to conduct research on the intersection of diet diversity and climate change at the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University. On the tail end of a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation and with data from climatologists, I examined the adaptability of diet diversity from the global ethnographic record. The combination of increased diet diversity with improved food security is a potential solution not only for equity in health but also for the future of humanity and our planet. In my opinion, these are two of the most pressing issues affecting public health and our world today, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is one of the leading organizations taking on the global charge of food systems adaptation to climate change.    

One of the parts I really like about my internship is that this position puts into practice many of the broad themes that I have studied – through the work at HRAF as well as the curriculum from the Human Nutrition MSPH program and the certificate of Food Systems, Environment and Public Health from the Center for Livable Future at Hopkins. I also really appreciate that this work brings together many different actors, teaching me how to effectively engage them all throughout the process.  

Working with brilliant and committed individuals in Rome and across North America in the United States and Canada is pretty amazing, too.   

2. How did you get interested in food and agriculture issues?   

The Public Health Nutrition profession has raised awareness regarding the fact that diabetes and obesity rates are higher among Native American populations than all other ethnic and racial groups in the U.S. However, the narrative often stops there. I was fortunate to spend the summer of 2018 conducting my thesis research and interning for the Seneca Nation Department of Agriculture also called Gakwi:yo:h (meaning “Good Food” in Seneca) Farms. While on the farm I spent time hand planting traditional bear paw beans and other seed varieties that had been passed down among families for generations, learning the traditional growing methods that had been used for thousands of years. I also got to listen to the stories individuals living on the reservation told of Turtle Island and of the spiritual meaning of food. They explained deep ties to family, resilience, culture, and the connection between us and nature that life sustainers possess. These narratives extended far beyond anything I could have imagined and beyond anything I had previously learned about diabetes and obesity within the walls of a classroom (or through a computer screen on Zoom).   

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, Native American adults are 50% more likely to be obese, almost 3 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, 50% more likely to be diagnosed with coronary heart disease, and 10% more likely to have high blood pressure than non-Hispanic Whites (1). These health disparities stem from a history of colonization and forced displacement onto reservations, where the loss of ancestral lands has led to a decrease in food and agricultural sovereignty and sustainability. In contrast to most industrial farming methods, Indigenous Peoples’ food systems are centered around a knowledge base, deep cosmology, and relationship with the land and Mother Earth. Indigenous Peoples’ growing systems, such as the three sisters, utilize sustainable methods of agroecology that are crucial to a global shift towards sustainable food systems.  

3. When did you join the FAO and how long have you worked here?   

I joined the FAO liaison office in Washington, DC at the beginning of June 2021. Although it has only been two months since I started, the timing could not have been better with the work leading up to the UN Food Systems Summit in September, as well as the pre-summit preparations that took place the last week of July. It has been an awesome opportunity to see the scale and scope of international food systems efforts that the FAO and FAO North America help coordinate.   

5. What do you enjoy doing for fun?   

Playing soccer and traveling, and ideally, doing them together. I’ve been able to travel to different countries to play soccer, whether it was in high school traveling to Brazil to play with the Charlotte Eagles, or to Italy with the Emory University women's soccer team to play teams from across Europe.  It never ceases to amaze me the way in which the game can bring people together. Whether you love playing it or love watching it – that shared understanding crosses so many barriers and is unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced.   

When I can’t play soccer and travel, I love to kayak, hike, read, and be outside.  

(1) Office of Minority Health. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2021, from https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=3&lvlid=62