The food system is broken. Factory farming and monocultures are rapidly degrading the environment and depleting our resources. Within the good food movement, there is widespread consensus about this. Where the real debate lies is in how we should fix it. Is more technology the answer to food sustainability or the problem? Will lab-grown meat and engineered faux meat lead the way to a carbon-neutral future or will the solution come from the plant-based movement? Quite possibly the answer will incorporate innovations from both technological advancement and culinary/agricultural tradition. Regardless of which gains
In the era of biohacking, big data, and a worsening health crisis, startups are clamoring to personalize nutrition plans according to individual genetic profiles. It seems a perfect solution to the conflicting nutrition advice provided by today’s diet zeitgeist: mediterranean vs. ketogenic, paleo vs. plant-based, DASH Diet vs. Whole30. Which macronutrient is most evil? Which of these dietary equations will solve our personal and public health problems? The new answer, according to cutting edge companies like Habit, Nutrigenomix and DNAFit, is that there is no one-size-fits-all diet. Our metabolic responses differ
Fertile topsoil is a lively ecosystem, teeming with microorganisms and worm life. It has robust soil structure that retains water well and allows plant roots to penetrate, to breathe, and to forage for nutrients. But there’s a problem. We’re running through our supply of fecund soil in the U.S. at an alarming rate, with an estimated 996 metric tons of soil erosion annually. Conventional agriculture enables—and the tight margins of the farming industry incentivize—short-term bounty to the detriment of sustainable practices. Annual tilling, monocropping, and chemical inputs promote an abundant harvest in the near term
Whether you have resolved to get healthier in 2018 or to lead a more earth-friendly lifestyle, choosing plant-based foods is a great place to start. It’s becoming increasingly easy to do so as the plant-based market shifts from niche to mainstream. Citing everything from personal wellness and public health to ethical concerns and environmental responsibility, a growing number of consumers are opting for plant-based products. Investors like Bill Gates and even Tyson Foods are betting on the plant-based businesses. According to recent Nielsen data commissioned by the Plant Based Foods Association and the Good Food
Aly Moore is the founder of bugible.com and eatbugsevents.com where she is working to raise awareness of the growing edible insect industry as a more sustainable and healthier alternative to animal agriculture. To bee or not to bee? This is the question of 2017. Bees are one of over 2,000 species of edible insects, and a 2016 market analysis and forecasting report by Research and Markets projects that the global edible insects market will grow to $1.53 billion by 2021. In short, the market says, “Bee!” With the global population expected to reach nine billion by 2050, new agricultural strategies are needed in order
Plant-based proteins have a new audience: meat eaters. Market data indicates that more and more people are seeking to reduce their meat intake. For the discerning consumer, there are any number of motivating factors: the health benefits of reduced meat consumption are increasingly recognized; animal rights activists are shedding light on the cruel realities of factory farming; and, as discussions of climate change reach new levels of urgency, animal agriculture is more frequently acknowledged as a major contributor. According to a World Resources Institute study, the average American diet causes nearly twice the
Mara and Willow King are probiotic alchemists. They started making live raw krauts and kim chi in their home kitchen and have built their passion into Ozuké, a raw fermented foods and beverages company based in Boulder Colorado and a member of FoodFutureCo’s Cohort 2. Along with author Sandor Katz, Mara recently launched a video series called The People’s Republic of Fermentation, in which Sandor and Mara travel through southwest China to learn more about the art of fermentation. In the first episode, they discover how to ferment vegetables the Chinese way (pao-cai) from Mrs. Ding in Chengdu. Follow their
Concordia is a nonprofit organization that enables public-private partnerships to create a more prosperous and sustainable future. As equal parts convener, campaigner, and idea incubator, Concordia is creating a new model for how a nonpartisan nonprofit can have a global impact. The Concordia team recently connected with FoodFutureCo's 2017 cohort companies and shared the learnings from these conversations on their blog (excerpted below). In an ever-growing pool of startup accelerators geared towards positive social impact, one stands out among the rest (and it’s not just because its founder Shen Tong was a social
Tom McDougall is the founder of 4P Foods, a D.C.-based food hub that sources from environmentally responsible family farmers and works to reconnect the community with their local foodshed. “Why are local and regional foods the ‘alternative’ instead of a mainstay of food systems in this country?” Philip Ackerman-Leist poses this question in the preface of his book, Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems. He goes on to say that, in order to find the answer, “…as with most agricultural endeavors, it takes a little digging to get started.” Today’s food system, according to
Janet Reynolds is FoodFutureCo’s fellow and a co-founder of Waste for Good, a social enterprise building hyper-local networks to connect sustainably-minded food providers to a hub in the community, where food waste is converted into clean energy. A Crisis in Vogue In the last two years, we’ve witnessed celebrity chefs transform vegetable trimmings, damaged apples, and otherwise wasted food into ‘Dumpster Dive Vegetable Salad’ and other artful dishes for New York City diners. Denmark opened its first food surplus supermarket selling expired food with Princess Marie of Denmark in attendance. We may even soon be saying