When we walk into a supermarket, we assume that we have the widest possible choice of healthy foods. But in fact, over the course of the 20th century, our food system was co-opted by corporate forces whose interests do not lie in providing the public with fresh, healthy, sustainably-produced food.
Fortunately for America, an alternative emerged from the counter-culture of California in the late 1960s and early 1970s, where a group of political anti-corporate protesters–led by Alice Waters–voiced their dissent by creating a food chain outside of the conventional system. The unintended result was the birth of a vital local-sustainable-organic food movement which has brought back taste and variety to our tables.
FOOD FIGHT is a fascinating look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement has created a counter-revolution against big agribusiness.
With global demand for food set to increase by nearly 70 percent by 2050, sustainable food production is one of the biggest challenges for the future.
The food industry is one of the most ecologically damaging industries and we will need to completely rethink its approach if we are to keep meals on the table for generations to come.
“Food is the single biggest impact that humans have on nature. We are deforesting the earth to grow more food. It’s by far the biggest user of fresh water, the single biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions, and the biggest reason why we’re in the middle of the mass species extinction event, the sixth that planet Earth has faced. At least a third of the world’s food is currently being wasted,” says Tristram Stuart, food waste campaigner and author.
“We do have the power as individuals to waste less, shift away from most ecologically destructive practices. That should give us hope that we can flip this enormous problem into one of the most delicious tools to tackle environmental meltdown.”
earthrise went to Finland and Italy to explore two alternative projects that are paving the way for the food of the future.
Zero Waste Restaurant A restaurant in Finland is challenging the traditional way of operating a fine dining eatery.
Ultima, in Helsinki, is pioneering a closed economy system where they not only reduce waste and recycle nutrients but are cultivating their own food on an urban site, thereby making the whole food production and consumption system highly efficient.
Its Michelin-starred chefs Henri Alen and Tommi Tuominen have designed a somewhat unusual menu from cricket tacos with queso fresco to mushroom pasta grown in coffee waste.
“It all started when me and my colleague Tommi, we were taking the bins out and we were thinking how can we make this much waste, how could we do the things better for the environment, for the customer?” says Alen. “That’s our biggest ambition.”
The pioneering restaurateurs set up Ultima in the belief that the old low-standard dishes of environmental eating should be a thing of the past. They hope that they can start a conversation.
“We just need to grow things forward, make people think,” says Alen.
Jellyfish for Dinner
In Italy, scientists are attempting to tackle the staggering number of jellyfish swarms with a new solution – by eating them.
Exploiting this foodstuff, which has been previously unexplored in the West, could begin to restore balance to the marine ecosystem, which has been devastated by a surge in jellyfish numbers, and also offer a much-needed sustainable meat alternative in an age where the meat industry is contributing to global climate change, deforestation and water degradation.
Research scientist Antonella Leone and her colleagues aim to show food safety authorities that jellyfish are a safe, plentiful food source.
“In Europe, jellyfish are considered a nuisance …. this could be changed if our studies demonstrate that they are a very powerful resource of food,” she says.”[It] could be important, for local fishermen, local restaurants, for local economies.”
With crop production increasingly threatened by unpredictable weather and a world population expected to grow 30 percent by midcentury, how are we going to feed everyone? The race to reinvent the global food system is on, and solutions you’ve probably never heard of are already in play. One company is tackling the problems of industrial agriculture by growing cell-based meat in a lab, eliminating both the need for animal slaughter and the grains we grow to feed them. Imagine a world where industrial animal farming and its harmful greenhouse gases no longer exist, where beef, poultry, and fish are consumed without interfering with the food chain. Hear from that company’s CEO, as well as a journalist who traveled around the world to meet other pioneers of the future of food.
