Global food production must increase 70% by 2050 to meet the needs of our growing planet.
If this sounds a bit concerning, it’s because it should. We’ve got a long way to go if we’re going to feed our quickly expanding population in a healthy and efficient way.
That said, know that thousands of people around the world are thinking about how to face this challenge. In fact, more than 500 food innovators, food and beverage producers, chefs, entrepreneurs, investors, farmers, technologists, global brands and journalists gathered this past weekend to discuss the future of food at the inaugural Bon Appétech conference in San Francisco. Here’s a look at some of the hot topics and recurring themes.
Growing the Local Food Movement
The local food movement has been gaining momentum in the U.S. for years, and for good reason. Eating locally grown food means you’re conserving energy (i.e. food travels shorter distances), buying fresher and therefore usually more nutritious produce and supporting your local economy.
Many companies are creating new channels to make local food more accessible to consumers. One such company at Bon Appétech was San Francisco-based startup Good Eggs. Good Eggs works directly with farmers and foodmakers in the Bay Area so residents can buy local groceries online and have them delivered to their door. Greta Caruso, co-founder and Foodmaker Team Lead, discussed her company’s mission, which is to grow and sustain local food systems worldwide. She also spoke of the challenges of creating a new supply chain out of thin air.
Much like Good Eggs, New York-based company Farmigo is another online farmers market that brings incredible food directly from local farms and producers to communities in the SF Bay Area, NY Tri-State Area and greater Seattle-Tacoma region. Jeff Coleman, the company’s National General Manager, shared their mission, which is to empower people to create a better way to eat, by creating farm-to-neighborhood access to fresh food.
There is no shortage of demand these days when it comes to local food, but the movement cannot scale without logistics and on-the-ground relationships. This is a major reason why companies like Michigan-based Local Orbit were created. According to founder & CEO Erika Block, Local Orbit offers services that “create stronger, more efficient food networks that can meet the demand for the food produced closer to where we live.” They’re helping solve the distribution challenges many companies are facing in their efforts to provide local food to more people.
These innovative ideas are great complements to more traditional farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, which also connect consumers directly to producers.
Finding Healthy Meat Alternatives
“If you can do any one thing to save the planet as an individual, it’s eat less meat,” said Johan Jorgensen, the Director of the USA Pavilion Accelerator at this year’s World Expo in Milan. Johan has been working with innovators from across the U.S. to tackle the challenge of feeding our planet’s growing population head on, and he believes cutting our total meat consumption is a step in the right direction.
As we mentioned in a recent post about the benefits of eating more plants, meat is one of the most ecologically costly foods consumed by humans. If we dedicated more resources to growing food for human consumption instead of animal consumption, we’d be a lot closer to feeding the global population and we’d also greatly cut our carbon footprint.
Many other speakers and companies at Bon Appétech agree and have been focused on finding healthy alternatives to meat that have less of a negative impact on the environment.
Food, health and sustainability enthusiast Leslie Ziegler co-founded Bitty Foods, a company aiming to introduce edible insects to the western diet. She emphasized the benefits of cricket flour, which is packed with omega-3 fatty acids and micronutrients, and is one of the most sustainable forms of protein on the planet. She and her team use it as the base for cookies and baking flour. They’ve even partnered with Tyler Florence to develop their recipes.
Other companies are focusing their efforts on microalgae for similar reasons. Alvyn Severien, founder of French company Algama, spoke about his company’s mission to provide healthy, sustainable and tasty products made from spirulina and chlorella.
Reducing Food Waste
Another crucial effort towards feeding our growing population is reducing food waste. More than 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year around the world, and this must stop.
One company addressing this issue is Feeding Forward. Feeding Forward is an early stage startup determined to eradicate hunger and eliminate food waste. Their technology enables businesses to receive a tax write-off and a reduction in disposal costs for providing meals to communities in need. Companies can request a pickup of surplus food and then a “food hero” will rescue and deliver the food to a nearby shelter. Feeding Forward was one of two winners out of the 80+ startups at Bon Appétech who were competing for $100,000 and a spot in 33entrepreneurs accelerator program in Bordeaux.
Other companies are addressing food waste in less direct ways. For example, while IBM’s smart computer Chef Watson mostly aims to inspire professional chefs and home cooks by suggesting recipes with fun and interesting ingredient combinations, it also encourages users to cook with ingredients they already have on hand, thereby helping folks make good use of leftover food.
Linking Good Food with Good Health
We know we need to increase food production, decrease food waste and eat less meat. While all of these are crucial in the effort to feed our growing population, it’s important to keep our health in mind along the way.
“It’s time to stop having separate conversations about food and healthcare,” said Leslie Ziegler during her talk about food, sustainability and health. Many folks in the audience nodded in agreement.
To better illustrate the close relationship between food and health, let’s take a look at trends in Japan and the United States. Japan has the #2 life expectancy in the world, and spends $3,213 on healthcare and $3,260 on food every year. The U.S. has the #35 life expectancy in the world, and spends $8,508 on healthcare and only $2,208 on food. This suggests that if we spend more money on healthier food here in the U.S., we could greatly cut healthcare costs and improve our overall health and life expectancy.
Zipongo founder and CEO Jason Langheier shared this comparison of Japan and the U.S. during his talk about the intersection of technology with food and health. He was joined by Chris Weiser, VP of Culinary & Retail Systems at Sodexo, a food services and facilities management corporation. Sodexo built the Mindful program, which focuses on providing transparency of ingredients, delicious food, satisfying portions and clarity in message so it’s easier for folks to make healthy food decisions.
Both Jason and Chris agreed on the importance of providing an environment with healthy food options. Jason pointed out that 80% of people choose one of the first three foods in a buffet line, but the same is true if these items are replaced with healthier alternatives. This suggests that offering healthier foods would greatly increase the number of good choices being made.
View the full panel discussion in the video to the left, or click here to watch it on YouTube.
The Future of Food
The challenges we face are tremendous. But if there’s one key takeaway from Bon Appétech, it’s that thousands of people are feverishly working on tackling these challenges by bringing innovation to all aspects of the food industry, from agricultural production to consumption. Check out the Bon Appétech website for a closer look at this year’s event and to stay informed about next year’s conference.
What do you think are some of the biggest food challenges we face, both in the U.S. and around the world? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
