For Food's Sake

A new generation of chefs – the modern-day ambassadors of the food movement – have a vision: radically transform the restaurant industry by turning sustainability into a culinary virtue.

By sourcing differently, cooking creatively, and eliminating the by-products of their restaurant operations, carbon neutral restaurants are pioneering the sustainable dining movement.

In this episode, we talk with ZeroFoodprint and two critically-acclaimed restaurants Amass and The Perennial leading the carbon neutral restaurant movement.

We discuss:

• What it means and what it takes for a restaurant to go carbon neutral
• How The Perennial supports Carbon Farming to combat climate change
• How Amass Restaurant is eliminating its waste by turning food scraps into culinary gold
• How carbon neutrality affects your dining experience and what you'll find on a carbon neutral menu
• How carbon neutrality can find ways to scale and conquer the fast food industry

We interview:

• Elizabeth Singleton – former Executive Director of ZeroFoodprint
• Matthew Orlando – Head Chef and Owner of Amass Restaurant
• Karen Leibowitz – Co-owner of The Perennial

ZeroFoodprint works with restaurants to help them understand and drive down their foodprint by taking action on operational efficiency, ingredients, and carbon offsets. It works with restaurants all around the world including Noma, Mission Chinese Food, Pistola y Corazón, Amass and The Perennial.

Amass opened in Copenhagen in 2013 by Matthew Orlando, former chef de cuisine of Noma. The world-famous New Nordic restaurant is radically rethinking the use of by-products in all of its operations.

The Perennial is a restaurant in San Fransisco pioneering the sustainable dining movement. By supporting and sourcing from carbon farming initiatives, The Perennial highlights how regenerative agriculture and sustainable dining can become part of the solution to climate change.

Links:

• ZeroFoodprint Website, Twitter, Facebook
• Amass Restaurant Website, Instagram , Twitter , Facebook
• The Perennial Website, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

You May also like:

• FFS 024 – The Soilution: saving our soil, saving ourselves
• FFS 022 – The Bird is the Word
• FFS 017 – When Farms go Vertical

In this episode, we discuss the ins and outs of the EU Common Agricultural Policy with Dr. Alan Matthews, Professor Emeritus of European Agricultural Policy at Trinity College, Dublin.

We discuss:

• The origins of the EU Common Agricultural Policy
• Hectare-based subsidies: how larger farms receive larger subsidies
• Subsidies: a barrier or incentive for sustainable farming?
• Agricultural lobbying in the EU
• A silver lining of Brexit
• A way forward for farming in Europe

Links:

• Follow Dr. Alan Matthews on Twitter
• EU CAP Reform Website
• Harriet Bradley: 'CAP 2020: A poor vintage?'

You may also like:

• FFS 026 – We Need To Talk About Monsanto
• FFS 023 – COP 23: Is Meat Finally On The Table?
• FFS 002 – The Carbon Food Tax

Is chocolate going 'extinct'? Are we heading towards a 'world without chocolate'?

In this episode, we explore what lies behind these recent media headlines that suggest chocolate may not survive climate change. To find answers, we deep dive into the world of chocolate with Simran Sethi.

Simran Sethi is a journalist focused on food, sustainability and social change. She is the best-selling author of Bread, Wine and Chocolate: The Slow Loss of the Foods We Love, a fellow at the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) and the creator and host of The Slow Melt: an award-winning podcast about chocolate.

We discuss:

• What chocolate actually is: how its grown and processed, and by who
• Chocolate in the spotlight: going "extinct", or not quite?
• Costly northern appetites: mass deforestation and biodiversity loss
• A real and present threat: farmer livelihoods, low prices and the cruel irony of oversupply
• Consumer consciousness: how we can take positive action

Links:

• Simran Sethi Website, Twitter, Instagram
• Simran Sethi (2015) Bread, Wine and Chocolate: The Slow Loss of the Foods We Love
• The Slow Melt: a Podcast about Chocolate
• Scott, M. (2016) 'Climate and Chocolate' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Barclay, E. (2015) 'Why the world might be running out of Cocoa Farmers' NPR
• Barclay, E. (2015) 'These Ivory Coast Cacao Farmers Had Never Tasted Chocolate' NPR

You may also like:

• FFS 024 - The Soilution: Saving our soil, saving ourselves
• FFS 016 - The Most Important Room in the World
• FFS 012 - Cultured Meat: Looking Beyond the Hype with New Harvest

Over the past decade, Monsanto has become a pop cultural bogeyman. Surrounded by controversy, cover-ups, and conspiracies, the agricultural giant is for many the face of corporate evil.

At the same time, the company continues to deliver commercial success. Reporting record sales, the world's largest seed company shows no signs of slowing down.

In this episode, we talk with Carey Gillam, veteran investigative journalist and author of Whitewash: The story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science.  A former senior correspondent for Reuters, Carey has spent over 20 years covering the agricultural industry and big food business. Today, she continues her work as the research director for consumer advocacy group US Right to Know.

We discuss:

• The origins: how Monsanto came to be the agricultural giant it is today
• Monsanto's lucrative business model: patented GMO-seeds & 'Round-up' weed-killer
• Monsanto, farmers and the Green Revolution
• The GMO controversy
• The rise, dominance (and eventual fall?) of Glyphosate: a controversial pesticide in our food, water, air and bodies
• The 'Monsanto Papers': decades of deception come to light
• The EU and Monsanto: head to head
• The Bayer-Monsanto merger: another twist
• Our role as consumers: more than spectators to a horror show?  

Links:

• Carey Gillam Website and Twitter
• Carey Gillam (2017) Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science
• Consumer Advocacy group US Right to Know
• Carey Gillam Presentation at the EU Parliament Hearing on Glyphosate 2017
• New York Times 'Monsanto's Roundup faces European Politics and U.S. Lawsuits'

• EU Observer: 'German vote swings EU decision on 5-year glyphosate renewal'  

You might also like:

• FFS 024 – The Soilution: Saving our soils, saving ourselves
• FFS 016 – The Most Important Room in the World
• FFS 009 – Stop Generalising GMOs

This week, we talk with Natalie Pukasemvarangkoon about the Paleo diet.

Natalie has experimented with pretty much every diet in the book. She's been a carnivore, a pescatarian, a vegetarian, and a vegan for a solid 3 years. She's tried the 80/10/10 diet, raw till four, the HCLF diet, and yes, the Paleo diet.

Natalie is the founder of the Paleo Collective - an umbrella for the Paleo lifestyle: providing Paleo-friendly caterings, personal chef services, they host pop-up dinners and provide corporate talks and demos to educate people on the diet and lifestyle. They also run a blog with recipes and health tips related to the Paleo diet.

In this episode, we discuss what the Paleo diet is, and why its Natalie's diet of choice. We explore:

• How to pronounce Paleo – the little things matter!
• How to eat Paleo: why eating grains and beans are a big no-no, why gluten is sin, and how choosing quality meat is essential
• What the gut microbiome is, how gluten can affect the gut, and how it influences our health and mood
• The common cause: why the rift between vegans and paleo obscures important values these diets or lifestyles have in common

Links:

• The Paleo Collective Website and Instagram
• The Paleo Diet - Loren Cordain
• Paleo Collective blogpost: 5 reasons why you should eat grass-fed over grain-fed meats
• Gut: The Inside Story of our Body's Most Underrated Organ – Giulia Enders

You might also like:

• FFS 021: My Beef with Veganism
• FFS 015: From A to Veganism
• FFS 013: How Plants Domesticated Humans

In the Age of People, the plow was, and remains, one of the most destructive inventions. In his new book Growing A Revolution, award-winning author David R. Montgomery calls on farmers to ditch the plow, bring back cover crops, and grow for diversity.

Such an agricultural revolution puts soil health at the center of farming. It transforms agriculture from a destructive practice that is very much part of the problem to a major solution that combats climate change.

In this episode, we talk to David and discuss:

• What soil is, and why farming depends above all on healthy soils
• What conservation agriculture is and why it works better, including:
  • why tilling your land is not a good idea
  • why an overdependence on chemical fertilizers and pesticides turns plants into 'botanical couch potatoes'
  • Why monocrops are vulnerable to pests, disease, and climate change
• How labels such as organic or conventional are missing the point
• How farming can shift from a carbon-emitting activity to a carbon-storing activity
• What obstacles still remain to making conservation farming the norm

"The debate over the future of agriculture is misrepresented when cast as the simple choice between organic methods and AgroTech approaches like GMOs. It really comes down to the philosophical rift between agricultural practices based on enhancing nutrient cycling and soil health versus those that mine soil fertility and attempt to replace or compensate for degraded soil health with technology and commercial products"  David R. Montgomery 

Links:

• Growing A Revolution: Bringing our soil back to life
• Growing a Revolution excerpt: 'Giving the Plow the Boot in the Era of Climate Change'
• Dig2Grow: David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé's website
• David R. Montgomery & Anne Biklé on Twitter

You might also like:

• FFS 013 - How Plants Domesticated Humans
• FFS 011 - Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future
• FFS 003 - The OurField Cereal Co-op Movement

As the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP23) comes to a close in Bonn, Switzerland, where do we stand on our climate commitments? What issues are on the table, and which have been swept under the rug? How are we tackling what many consider to be one of the biggest elephants in the room – the role of livestock and global overconsumption of meat and dairy products?

In this episode, we welcome back Mark Pershin on the podcast, founder and CEO of Less Meat Less Heat, an organization committed to shifting societal attitudes towards meat consumption to curtail agriculture's damaging impact on the environment.

Mark and I discuss:

• Why so little progress has been made in reaching agreements on agriculture and food in UN Climate Change Conferences
• How a coalition is forming that aims to put the overconsumption of meat on the negotiating table and the role of livestock in climate change front and centre of policy debates
• Why grassroots movements and individual actions remain vital in the fight against climate change

Links: 

• Less Meat Less Heat website
• Climatarian Diet Challenge
• "Grazed and confused" – Food Climate Research Network
• Climate Agriculture unmasked -- indigenous organized
• Put Climate on Pause coalition website
• Clean Air Coalition
• Boycott of US Fossil Fuel Presentation at COP23

You may also like:

• FFS 000 - Why a Food Podcast
• FFS 001 - The Climatarian Diet
• FFS 012 - Cultured Meat: Looking Beyond the Hype with New Harvest

This year for Thanksgiving, Americans will consume 46 million turkeys. Factory farming has never been more 'efficient'. This same year, the US has consumed 9 billion chickens. Worldwide, we managed to eat 50 billion. How does this system function? What makes it so effective and profitable?

It all comes down to one word: genetics.

Since the 1950s, heritage breeds of poultry, or standard-bred poultry, have been gradually replaced by an army of uniform hybrid birds. Bred to grow as large as possible and as quickly as possible, hybrids are exceptionally profitable for Big Agriculture, and have come to dominate the global poultry industry.

In this episode, I talk with Andrew DeCoriolis from Farm Forward and Frank R. Reese Jr., owner of the Good Shepherd Poultry Farm, about the need to preserve heritage breeds. We explore:

• How animal welfare, the livelihoods of farmers and the environment are best protected when the genetic diversity of these birds is preserved.
• How free-range, pasture-raised and organic meat movements are counterproductive if we fail to win the battle of genetics.
• How supporting heritage poultry this Thanksgiving is one of the strongest and most effective ways to boycott factory farming and support sustainable agriculture.

Farm Forward is a US-based non-profit that implements innovative strategies to promote conscientious food choices, reduce farmed animal suffering, and advance sustainable agriculture. Farm Forward is helping Frank Reese share his knowledge with the next generation of farmers by launching the Good Shepherd Poultry Institute (GSPI). 

Frank Reese is a fourth-generation Kansas farmer with more than 60 years of experience breeding and raising heritage poultry. An award-winning master breeder and American Poultry Association (APA) judge, Frank owns and operates one of the few successful heritage poultry farms in America, the Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch, which has garnered praise from Martha Stewart, celebrity chef Mario Batali, the New York Times, and is featured centrally in the documentary film Eating Animals, which recently premiered at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival.

Links:

• Farm Forward Website
• Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch 
• Good Shepherd Poultry Institute
• American Poultry Association         
• Heritage Foods USA
• Buying Poultry (rating poultry products website) 
• Eating Animals Documentary Teaser trailer 
• USDA Poultry statistics 

You may also like:

• FFS 021 – My Beef with Veganism 
• FFS 011 – Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future 
• FFS 008 – Edible Insects: the diet of tomorrow? 

In this episode, I talk about my beef with Veganism. I explain why, after a 30-day vegan challenge, I remain a sceptical vegetarian. I talk about:

• How Vegan-endorsed health hypes and food fads create their own ethical dilemmas which vegans need to confront
• How the 'Go Vegan, save the planet' discourse is unhelpful for the movement, and factually questionable.
• How Veganism needs to move away from a self-understanding as the movement, and instead embrace its place as a movement among many (imperfect) dietary movements that support a move away from factory farming and industrial food production

Links:

• UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (2013) 'Tackling climate change through livestock' 
• Springman, A., Godfray, C.J., Rayner, M., Scarborough, P. (2016) 'Analysis and valuation of the health and climate change cobenefits of dietary change' Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences Vol. 113, No. 15 
• Blythman, J. (2016) 'Can hipsters stomach the unpalatable truth about avocado toast?' The Guardian (Opinion)
• Gray, Margaret (2013) Labor and the Locavore: The Making of a Comprehensive Food Ethic. University of California Press.
• Lawrence, Felicity (2011) 'Spain's salad growers are modern-day slaves, say charities' The Guardian 
• World Economic Forum (2016) 'What would happen if everyone in the world suddenly stopped eating meat?'
• Fairlie, Simon (2010) Meat: A benign extravagance. Chelsea Green Publishing.
• Southan, Rhys (2011) Book Review: Meat: A benign extravagance
• Morbiot, George (2010) 'I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat – but farm it properly' The Guardian (Opinion) 

You may also like: 

• Article: 'What Vegans can learn from Trump' 
• FFS 015 - From A to Veganism 
• FFS 008 - Edible Insects: the diet of tomorrow? 
• FFS 001 - The Climatarian Diet 

Like the combustion engine, the telephone, and the Internet before it, blockchain has the potential to transform how human society functions. What would such a transformation look like in the food industry?

In this episode, we talk with Blockchain theorist Melanie Swan about what is possible. We explore:

• What 'Blockchain' is
• How Blockchain is transforming Big Food businesses
  • redefining operational efficiency and the transparency of supply chains
• How Blockchain can empower consumers
  • Farm-to-fork transparency: instant verification of where your food comes from
  • Holding Big Food accountable through real-time financial interest tracking of the businesses supplying your food
  • Ensuring end-user data ownership
• How Blockchain optimises the sharing economy
  • Community coins: local currencies enabling a peer-based local economy for sharing resources
  • 'The Uber for microgreens': real-time on-demand peer sharing of overproduced local products with your neighbours

• How Blockchain can help in the fight against world hunger, malnutrition, and food waste

Links: 

• The Institute for Blockchain Studies
• Broader Perspective - Melanie Swan's blog
• Forbes - 'IBM Forges Blockchain Collaboration with Nestlé and Walmart in Global Food Safety' 
• Banking on Bitcoin - Netflix Documentary

You may also like:

• FFS 017 - When Farms Go Vertical
• FFS 012 - Cultured Meat: Looking Beyond the Hype with New Harvest
• FFS 011 - Transforming Agriculture to Feed the Future