This interview was conducted and written by a guest contributor, Nicole Lee. Read about Nicole here.

Should I go vegan? How do I compost? What to do with tofu? Millions of followers have now turned to bloggers and influencers online to answer questions like these, learning more about the food they eat. While social media has been tightly linked to negative impacts on issues like diet culture and body shaming, it has also become a place of inspiration for many to learn new recipes and adopt healthier, more sustainable eating practices. So, to learn more about these influencers and what’s going on in their heads, we decided to interview some of them for our new series exploring the intersections of food, sustainability, and social media.

First on this series is my friend Elizabeth Couse, who recently graduated from Cornell University last year. She dedicates her life to all things sustainability and is a strong advocate of veganism, permaculture, social change, and community building. She has amassed over 24,000 followers on Instagram and recently started up Eco Warrior Retreats—sustainable living retreats based in Costa Rica. Read more about her story below!

N: Could you tell us a bit about what you do?

E: Hi! I’m Elizabeth :) I’m currently living in Costa Rica, growing food, regenerating land, building community, and trying to figure out how I can best contribute to this regeneration. I work at a permaculture farm and education center, which offers 2 week permaculture design courses that help empower people to live in harmony with nature. I’m working on the farm, managing their branding and online presence, and helping to develop an online permaculture training program. I also host sustainable living retreats at a family farm in the Central Valley that are all about community building, social change, and true authentic sustainable living.

I share my life online and have a passion for art, photography, and videography. My content has changed as I do. I’m feeling lucky at the moment to be doing lots of different things that I’m passionate about.

N: How did you know that working with food was something you wanted to do?

E: There wasn’t one moment when I realized that food is one of my passions, but it’s been a slow progression of many things that have always brought me back to food as the answer. Growing up, I had no connection to my food or the food system, and I ate a standard American diet. I went vegetarian when I was 15 then vegan at 17, which were the stepping stones for my interest in food as I slowly began to realize how distanced and detached we all are to what we eat.

Studying International Agriculture & Rural Development at Cornell, as well as living in Ithaca—which has a strong local food community, both shaped me in a lot of ways. Throughout my undergrad, I also got to travel to Costa Rica, Germany, and Australia. Seeing different community food systems and the transformative as well as degrading effects of food has helped me understand the deep and complex implications of our food system. To put simply, I love food! Growing it, cooking it, eating it, talking about it, everything.

N: Do you consider yourself to be an "influencer"? What does that mean to you?

Everyone is making change all the time. Whether the change is positive or negative, destructive, sustainable, or regenerative—that’s up to you. We all have a voice and influence, whether or not you have a million followers or one. I feel lucky to have the online audience that I have, and creating content is something that I genuinely love doing. I hope that with just as much as an online influence, I can have an even greater real life influence. I hope to have an influence on my local community first.

On Shifting to a Diet of Sustainability:

N: What does sustainable eating look like to you?

E: I don’t think you can talk about food and sustainability without talking about community resilience. The current industrial global food system is one of the most destructive systems on our planet, but food has the power to be one of the most empowering healing forces. I think sustainable eating is about cultivating a reciprocal relationship with the earth and those around you. It’s about community building and regeneration. That’s why the whole issue and solution to the food system are so complex and messy—it’s all connected and interrelated. You can’t talk about healing the food system without talking about poverty, racism, sexism, or environmental collapse, etc. We don’t have these singular isolated problems in the world but many different converging crises, and I believe that they all lead to our broken relationship with the ecosystem around us. Fitting into the human and earth community around me, being a positive regenerative rather than exploitative force—that’s what sustainable living, and eating look like to me.

N: Do you think that sustainable eating in this way is accessible to all in today’s system?

E: No not at all! In permaculture, there is a set of ethics that are earth care, people care, fair share. Sometimes, we also talk about a fourth ethic called the transition ethic. This is all about empathy and meeting people where they are at. I think it’s easy in today’s world to get frustrated and angry—to play the blame game and point fingers. I think it’s important to realize that everyone is doing their best with what they have and a lot of the change needs to happen by government and big corporations. We don’t live in a perfect world yet, and most people are still living within the bounds of this corrupt exploitative system. I used to fall into this trap of blaming others, but one of the most liberating changes has been to always have the benefit of the doubt—believing and knowing that we are all doing our best where we are.

Advice for our readers:

N: What advice would you give to someone trying to shift to such a diet?

E: Take a permaculture design course (PDC)! They are life changing. The course I took changed my life, and I’ve gotten to witness dozens of people be inspired and empowered. If you’re interested in creating a reciprocal relationship with the environment around you and live in harmony with nature, then it’s a great start. Focus on the people and the social/community aspect of food. Healing our human communities is just as important as the environment and we aren’t going to do one without the other. Go to your farmer’s market. Bring a friend or two or three. Talk to the farmers. Smile. Offer gratitude and make some new friends. Grow some herbs on your windowsill or volunteer at a community garden. Ferment some sauerkraut. Compost.

There are a lot of things. Don’t get overwhelmed, but do challenge yourself. Focus on the relationship with others and your surroundings. Once you have that down, everything else falls into place.

N: What is a pantry staple you cannot live without?

E: Nooch. Or tahini.

N: What is a favourite recipe you are loving lately?

E: Living in the tropics, I’ve been loving trying new foods and recipes. Lately, I’ve been loving breadfruit! I think that eating perennials and tree crops is a super important part of a sustainable regenerative diet and breadfruit is amazing because it’s like a potato that grows on trees! I really love it mashed or turned into fries. You can also dehydrate it and make it into flour and then delicious desserts! :)

For more Elizabeth Couse:

Instagram: @elizabethcouse_

Website: https://www.elizabethcouse.com

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/elizabethcouse