In the latest round of “10 Words or Less,” the participant is one of the panelists May 26 for “Food and Sustainability,” a continuation of the two-year “Let’s Talk About Food” series being conducted by Boston’s Museum of Science. Carroll is the author of several books, including “Pastures of Plenty” and “The Real Dirt.” Remember: Please, no counting; the 10-word thing is a goal, not a rule, and besides, let’s see you do it.
Name: John E. Carroll
Age: 65
Residence: Durham, N.H.
Occupation: Professor of environmental conservation, University of New Hampshire
Passion: “Watching the growth of the new local food and farming movement.”

As a new restaurant owner and assistant minority leader of the Massachusetts Senate, BOB HEDLUND, 49, of Weymouth is well situated to comment on politics and food. After I read his comments in the Boston Globe recently — especially that “the marketplace should determine what’s on restaurant menus, not the First Lady of the United States” — I asked if we could talk. Regular readers will recognize the format: questions and answers of 10 words or less. Please, no counting; it’s a goal, not a rule, and besides, let’s see you do it.

The name of your restaurant: “Four Square.”

Where is it? “Weymouth Landing, Braintree.”

What kind of a place is it? “Beer and wine, with a very diverse menu.”

What’s your favorite dish, personally? “Beer.”

Have you ever had a weight problem? “No.”

Please rank obesity as a national problem, on a scale of 1-10: “Between a 7 and an 8.”

Do we need a solution for it? “It’s obviously not going to solve itself, but the answer does not lie solely with government.”

KRISTEN McALEAVEY, 41, of Richmond, Va., is an associate professor in social work at Longwood University who also maintains a private practice in addiction. I met her recently at the third annual meeting of the Society of Food Addiction Professionals in Houston, and, impressed, asked her to join me for a 10-words-or-less interview. Please: No counting; it’s a goal, not a rule.

HEIDI SNYDER, 46, of Port Townsend, Wash., is a certified nutrition consultant and a holistic health educator. She is fabulously versed in both the constituents and the wholeness of food, as I rediscovered when we both attended the Society of Food Addiction Professionals conference recently in Houston. Before we parted on Sunday, I asked her to play my typical short-question interview game, in which the questions — and, by my request, the answers — are 10 words or less. Remember, please: No counting. It’s a goal, not a rule.

ANGELO FIRENZE, 38, of Belmont is a food entrepreneur who sells gelato worthy of his still-vital Italian heritage. He delivers it by the scoop at Angelato, his Belmont restaurant, and by the tub, wholesale, to scores of eateries in Eastern Mass. In Belmont, he also sells a growing menu of deli and delicacies, and he says more innovation is on the way.

Yesterday, I put some questions to him in my usual format: questions, and answers, of 10 words or less. (Please, no counting; it’s a goal, not a rule, and not as easy as it might appear.)

What did you want to be when you grew up? “A captain of industry.”

Jean Fain, 55, of Concord, Mass., is a longtime friend and colleague, though it is coincidental that we both ended up professionally concerned and active in the fight against obesity. When we met, we were working at the Boston Globe.

Though I beat her to the presses by a month or two, Jean is a whirlwind of activity. In addition to her book “The Self-Compassion Diet, A Step-by-Step Program to Lose Weight with Loving-Kindness,” Jean is a psychotherapist in private practice and a teaching associate at the Cambridge (Mass.) Health Alliance.

I recently asked her to engage in an interview form I enjoy, in which the questions, and answers, are 10 words or less. Please note: it’s not a strict rule, and I’ve done some editing as well.

This is another in an occasional series on people who are working on behalf of problem eaters. If you've seen one of the others, you know the drill: I ask questions of 10 words of less, ask for answers of 10 words or less in return, and then edit a bit.

CHRISTOPHER CLARK, 49, Naples, Fla.
Founder, National Association for Males with Eating Disorders

Do you have an eating disorder?“I had an eating disorder, anorexia.”

Another short interview: I ask questions of 10 words or less, and ask respondents to answer with the same brevity. The theme of the current series is people who are working in eating disorder recovery.

MARTY LERNER, 60, Davie, Fla.

Chief executive and clinical director, Milestones in Recovery

Long-time readers will recognize this format: I ask interview subjects questions of 10 words or less, and ask them to respond in kind (please, no counting). I've done about a dozen in this style on people working in sustainability, and now I hope to do a set with people working on some part of the obesity problem.

PHIL WERDELL, 68, Sarasota, Fla.
Cofounder, Acorn Food Dependency Recovery Services
What did you want to be when you grew up? “A leader.”
Someone you admired in childhood, outside your family
“Robert McNamara.”
Someone you admire today, outside your family “Bill Wilson,” cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous.
What do you do for a living? “I work intensively with late-stage food addicts and write about food addiction.”

After a brief hiatus, another in a series of miniprofiles of sustainability-minded people who are working to reduce humankind’s footprint on the planet. They're "mini" not only because they're short, but because all the questions are 10 words or less, and the answers are requested to match. I met today's subject while writing about a green, urban in-fill property in Lawrence, Mass., and later hired him to help us plan an expansion at our house. 

JOHN ROSSI, 42, of Newburyport, Mass. 
Principal, Barendsen Rossi Collaborative, which does architecture, design, and industrial design

Why do you do this work? "Because I love solving problems."

Green epiphany: "In college, we read Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," and I realized at one point, 'oh my, this was written 30-40 years ago, and how much worse could it be now?' I’ve realized since that it isn’t all doom and gloomy, that there really is an opportunity here."

A sustainability practice you’ve taken on: "Raising kids who appreciate the earth and want to take care of it."