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Feed: a food system podcast

    Debates about the future of food have become more polarised than ever - and little attention is paid to why people hold genuinely different views. This podcast aims to fill this gap by exploring the evidence, worldviews, and values that people bring to global food system debates.

    Season 1 - Scale in the food system (episode 1-16)
    Is a local or global food system more sustainable? How big should a farm be? Our first season asked what is the right scale of the food system exploring it through multiple levels - spatial, economic, moral and temporal. You can listen back to the season and let us know what you think on our community forum. This podcast is produced and operated by SLU as part of the ongoing work of TABLE.

    Season 2 - Power in the food system (episode 19-39)
    Who decides what ends up on your plate? In the second season of Feed, we will explore what power in food systems looks like, who holds that power, who should have more or less power, and how various actors, from governments to eaters, exert their power to shape the food systems that we all depend upon. We speak to farmers, activists, corporations, researchers, media and more.

     

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    Matthew Kessler

    With over a decade of working in and around food systems, and a similar period of time listening to podcasts, Matthew Kessler is excited to wear the hats of podcast creator, co-host and editor. He has spent five years working on and managing farms, received a BSc in Environmental Studies from Warren Wilson College and a MSc in Agroecology from Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Matthew is currently a Research and Communications officer at TABLE (sitting in Uppsala at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences). He has a particular interest in what catalyses food systems transformations (e.g. policies, markets, movements, etc.) and who is being served by those changes.

    Samara Brock (Season 1 and 2)

    Samara Brock has worked for over fifteen years in sustainable food systems as a planner for the City of Vancouver, implementing agricultural projects in Cuba and Argentina, and as a program officer at the Tides Canada Foundation funding organizations working on complex conservation, climate change, and food system initiatives. She holds a master's in Community and Regional Planning from the University of British Columbia, and a master’s in Food Culture from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the Yale School of Environment where her research focuses on organizations attempting to transform the global food system.

    We want to hear from you!

    Please let us know what you think of the show. We'd like to hear who you think we should be talking to, and what food system debates you would like us inquire about.

    Do you agree or disagree with something we've presented something on the show? Or do you think a different framing would be more appropriate? Please let us know.

    You can record yourself in a quiet room or send us an e-mail to podcast@tabledebates.org and we may bring your perspective into a future episode.

    The logo for Feed, a food systems podcast by TABLE.

    Episodes

    Sofia Wilhelmsson on "Pig transport and human-animal relations" (rebroadcast)

    What if we relate to farm production animals the way we relate to pets?

    What is rewilding? (rebroadcast)

    Imagine a world where nature reclaims its place in the landscape.  What would that mean for food systems?

    Ep52: Neena Prasad on the power of ultra-processed foods

    What's behind the increased global consumption of ultra processed foods?

    Ep51: Jessica Duncan on COP28 and who shapes food policy

    Food systems are finally getting more attention at global climate conversations like COP 28. But who is at the table shaping our food futures? 

    Presenting "A CRISPr Bite: Wine"

    Can CRISPr gene edit a solution in the invasive insect that threatens California's 46 billion USD wine industry?

    Will you join the insect revolution?

    Everyday food, food fad or future staple?

    Ep48: Narrowing the yield gap in sub-Saharan Africa

    What's getting in the way of farmers increasing their yields?

    Presenting "M4F: Ep8. Looking back, looking forward"

    What we learned through exploring different futures for meat

    Presenting "M4F: Ep7. Health, biodiversity, animal ethics"

    How do the four futures stack up?

    Presenting "M4F: Ep6. Plant-based"

    Planet friendly eating or going against our nature?

    Presenting "M4F: Ep5. Less meat"

    Triple win for people, planet and animals or elitist and unrealistic?

    Presenting "M4F: Ep4. Alternative 'meat'"

    A utopian evolution or science fiction dystopia?

    Presenting "M4F: Ep3. Efficient meat"

    The only way to feed billions or the root of society's problems?

    Presenting "M4F: Ep2. A complicated relationship with meat"

    How values, emotions, and where we live impact our views on meat.

    Presenting "Meat: the four futures"

    What we eat and don't eat, isn't only a scientific question - it's an emotional and ethical one.

    Ep39: What did we learn about power? (with Tara Garnett and Sigrid Wertheim-Heck)

    We talk about what surprised us, what we learned, and what we missed across the last 15 episodes.

    Ep38: Lucy Vincent and Linda Kjær Minke on Food in Prisons

    How is food in UK and Danish prisons procured, prepared and eaten?

    Ken Giller on the Food Security Conundrum (rebroadcast)

    Announcing our new season + the complex challenges of addressing food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Ep37: Philip McMichael on the "Corporate food regime"

    Are we living in a Corporate Food Regime?

    Ep36: Jason Clay on "Building and flying the plane as we go"

    Ideas to increase transparency for consumers, improve livelihoods for farmers, and urgently scale up and out systems-level solution.

    Ep35: Sofia Wilhelmsson on "Pig transport and human-animal relations"

    What if we relate to farm production animals the way we relate to pets?

    Ep34: Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on "the power of regenerative movements"

    The system we feed will be the system that wins.

    Ep33: Jeremy Brice on "Investment, Power and Protein in sub-Saharan Africa"

    Who is investing in protein in sub-Saharan Africa and what motivates their decision to - or to not - invest in the region?

    Ep32: Blain Snipstal on "Battling plantation agriculture today"

    Is the real battle between small- and large-scale agriculture waged in the realm of values and ideas? Blain thinks so.

    Vincent Ricciardi on Challenging Assumptions (rebroadcast)

    How much of the world's food is actually produced by smallholders? Do small or large farms have higher yields?

    Ep31: What is rewilding? (with Walter Fraanje)

    Why might a farmer either support or oppose rewilding?

    Ep30: Giuliana Furci on "Without fungi we wouldn't have food"

    What power do fungi have over humans and food systems?

    Ep29: Joachim von Braun on an 'IP for Food'

    What comes after the UN Food Systems Summit?

    Ep28: Busiso Moyo on the Right to Food

    What does a 'Right to food' actually look like in practice?

    Ep27: Jayson Lusk on Markets and Consumer Power

    Does having more information actually change what food people buy?

    Ep26: Parsing Grindadráp (with Tamsin Blaxter)

    What role does Faroese whaling have in a sustainable food future?

    Ep25: What is ecomodernism? (with Helen Breewood)

    What are the implications of ecomodernism for food and agriculture?

    Elena Lazos Chavero on Scale, Seeds and Sovereignty (rebroadcast)

    Power dynamics don't only come from the outside, but also exist within local communities.

    Jennifer Clapp on Commodifying Food (rebroadcast)

    Has the increasing commodification of food and financialization of the food system left us more vulnerable to food crises?

    Ep24: An open-ended discussion on power in the food system

    Representatives from civil society, academia, media and the private sector discuss power in the food systems. We cover the power of politics, markets, narratives, grassroots movements, geopolitics, and more.

    Ep23: Herman Brouwer and Joost Guijt on Power in Multi-stakeholder Partnerships

    What are MSPs, do they actually work, and what are the different ways that power plays out in them?

    Ep22: Channa Prakash on GMs, Golden Rice, and the Green Revolution

    When it comes to GM debates, is ideology getting in the way of science?

    Ep21: Julie Guthman on Capital, Tech and Alternative Food

    How do Silicon Valley and the Organics movement think about food systems sustainability differently?

    Ep20: Phil Howard on Corporate Consolidation

    How do food corporations cope with the fact that human stomachs remain the same size?

    Ep19: Introducing Season 2 - Power in the food system

    We speak to researchers, farmers, activists and others about power in the food system - what is it, who has it, and how does it shape our collective future?

    Ep18: Food systems investors on COP-26 (part 2)

    How can food systems investors influence large agri-food companies to change their practices?

    Ep17: Why isn't food on the COP agenda? (part 1)

    Why isn't food a part of the COP-26 climate agenda? We speak to activists, civil society, and politicians to find out.

    Ep16: Charles Godfray and Pat Mooney debate the future of food systems

    At what scale should future food systems operate when it comes to growing sustainable food, reducing biodiversity loss, and employing different technologies?

    Ep15. What scale for the food system? (Season 1 Recap)

    Are local or global food systems more sustainable and resilient, and is that even the right question to ask?

    Ep14: Elin Röös, Johan Karlsson and Robin Harder on exploring values in food systems models

    How do our values influence what we ask from and how we interpret food systems models?

    Ep13: Felipe Roa-Clavijo on "Feeding the village, nation, or world"

    What underlies the different Colombian agri-food systems narratives to feed the village, the nation or the world?

    Ep12: Sophia Murphy on "Getting the global rules right"

    What needs to change in order for international food trade to meet the different needs of nations and peoples across the globe?

    Ep11: Klara Fischer on why "technology is not scale-neutral"

    Why do smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa adopt, adapt and reject different technologies?

    Vincent Ricciardi on Challenging Assumptions

    How much of the world's food is actually produced by smallholders? Do small or large farms have higher yields? Vinny digs into the data...

    Ep9: Jessica Duncan on "We eat, drink and breathe food policy"

    Should we always be seeking consensus in food system debates?

    Ep8: Brent Loken on "It's not so simple"

    How can shifting diets reduce biodiversity loss and why we shouldn't bet on a single solution to transform food systems

    Ep7: Elena Lazos Chavero on Scale, Seeds and Sovereignty

    Who benefits from traditional "super foods" being sold in high-end grocery stores and what does the food sovereignty movement in Mexico stand for today?

    Ep6: Jamie Lorimer on the Probiotic Planet

    How can the tiniest of actors, microbes, potentially have huge impacts on food and other systems?

    Ep5: Jennifer Clapp on Commodifying Food

    Has the increasing commodification of food and financialization of the food system left us more vulnerable to food crises?

    Ep4: Sahil Shah on Scaling Seaweed

    What role can seaweed and different technologies play in building a resilient food system? What are the tradeoffs when scaling?

    Ep3: Lauren Baker on Connecting Local and Global Scale to Place

    How do people and organisations work to transform the food system at both the local and global scale?

    Ep2: Rob Bailey on Chokepoints and Vulnerabilities

    Is the system of global food trade, where 25% of all agricultural products are traded internationally, a resilient or vulnerable one?

    Ep1: Ken Giller on the Food Security Conundrum

    Why does agricultural research often fall short of addressing food insecurity challenges in sub-Saharan Africa?

    Introducing Feed and our first theme: Scale in the food system

    We introduce our first theme: Scale in the food system, and its spatial, economic, temporal and moral dimensions.
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