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Episode Summary

When we talk about the future of food, we usually picture what's growing in the fields or what's on our dinner plates. But maybe we should pay a little more attention to everything happening in between. Processing and packaging consumes the largest share of fossil fuels in our food system— more than 40%. Our growing reliance on ultra-processed foods, and plastics across the supply chain is making food production more energy-intensive than ever before. 

About the Experts

Errol Schweizer is a member of the IPES-Food panel with other 25 years in food retail and supply chain expertise. He has have worked with Whole Foods, Patagonia, Annie’s, General Mills, Fairway, Good Eggs and National Co-op Grocers. I co-founded HERBL, Good Catch, Basics Market and other brands. Errol writes a weekly substack called the Checkout, the essential take on the 1 trillion dollar grocery industry.

Emma Priestland is the Global corporate campaigns coordinator at Break Free From Plastic Movement and freelance consultant. Through campaigning and advocating for new laws, Emma was instrumental in drastically reducing the use of plastic bags across Europe and played an important role in passing legislation to ban single use plastic items across the continent.

Rachel Muncrief is the Acting Executive Director of the International Council on Clean Transportation. Dr. Muncrief is a chemical engineer with more than 20 years of experience working to mitigate the health and climate impacts from the transportation sector.         

Georgina Catacora-Vargas is a member of the IPES-Food panel, and professor at the Academic Peasant Unit ‘Tiawanacu’ of the Bolivian Catholic University. She is president of the Latin American Scientific Society of Agroecology, and advisor to the Agroecology Fund. She is an agricultural engineer with a PhD in Agroecology.