THE FUTURE OF FOOD

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016

soho house

Can you imagine what we'll be eating 40 years from now?

Statistics suggest that in all likelihood you'll be living in or near a major city, and that the food supplies of our planet will be in great distress. 

Who will be defining the direction of farms and fisheries, building the supermarkets and restaurants, exploring the latest trends and developments in nutrition, and creating emerging technologies that could change the way we eat? And what role will you have? 

Jonathan Cetnarski (CEO, Natural Gourmet Institute), Jennifer Goggin (Chair, Slowfood NYC), Mike Lee (Founder, The Future Market) and Farryn Weiner (VP of Marketing, Sweetgreen) talked about what's to come with Simon Roberts (Founder, Propagate). 

The speakers agreed that the future of food can be found in our past. We're going back to a time when we will sit down to dinner, in community, to a home-cooked meal. We will know where our food comes from and have a relationship with its producers. They envision a future where nutrition and quality will be first and foremost, and where waste will be minimized. Insects may become a more pronounced source of protein in the western diets, as long as they're presented in a digestible way. They had differences in opinion and were uncertain about the long term effects of genetically modified foods, thinking that it could be a solution to world hunger, as long as it's properly labelled. They all agreed that consumers needs to exercise their power to demand better food with their buying choices.