The New Optimists Blog
In the future, we’ll all work like this?
The table around which eight of us sat and talked about food poverty in Birmingham on 9th February is this one (see left) — about a week later.
The paper tablecloth stayed for several days, a suitable surface for more ideas, more diagrams, more words — as well as the odd coffee ring along with books, yet more papers, the computer, iphone, felt-tips . . .
I didn’t think about ideas-competing-with-meals on my kitchen table until Matthew Green (of @policyworks) and I had a meeting about all this food Forum stuff here t’other day.
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#TNOfood event — Food poverty in Birmingham: And finally . . .
At the end of Forum conversation on 9th February, I asked the people round the table to write the answers to two questions. And here are the questions, and what they wrote in reply:
What is the most interesting /important thing you’ve heard this evening?
- That supermarket data sets could be followed and federated to get a proper view in real time of consumption (though I’m not sure how!)
- Efficiency (and growing efficiency) of the food supply system.
- We eat safe food of very high quality but if supermarket supply chains (i.e. us) become too picky, growers will sell to other countries where they aren’t so fussy
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What choices technology and planning give us with supply and consumption of food. #TNOfood
- GM foods – there is a mis-education around the implications of GM foods because we wouldn’t really know the impact until 20 years into the scheme.
- If there was a choice between no food or GM food people would go for GM food
- We have a luxury in this country that we have a choice about GM food so is it our responsibility to test it out to find out what the effects are before we have no choice.
- Fridges and freezers changed the way we store food.
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Supply and demand: Are we efficient in the way we buy food #TNOfood
Is the way food is supplied to us the problem with out market or is the way consumers shop the issue?
- If we supermarket take over the food market what would that look like to for supplies?
- Supermarkets play a huge part in making food safe – they have to protect their brand.
- If we kill off food miles by growing all our own food will kill off economies in other countries and negate the changes we’ve made for the world.
- Could we kill off our own market place by making it too hard for companies to import food with tough quality standards about the appearance of our food?
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Limits, Choices and Affluence: Does this effect our relationship with food #TNOfood
- There is not going to be enough food to feed everyone on the planet so is biotechnology the way forward? But if this fortifies food with vitamins and minerals due to the speed it will be produced, would that also mean we’d lose something fundamental in the process?
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How accessible is fresh food: Could planning for better communities help people eat healthier? #TNOfood
Jim Parle recapped on the idea of Food Deserts and it started a conversation with Nick Booth, Jayne Bradley, Norman Leet, Parveen Mehta, Kate Cooper, Lucy Bastin, Sandy Taylor and Jim about what else that could actually mean and what factors would contribute?
- Is it caused by lack of accessibility?
- Is is an issue with nutritional education?
- Or is it linked to child / household poverty?
Continue reading “How accessible is fresh food: Could planning for better communities help people eat healthier? #TNOfood”
#tnofood: Food poverty in Brum? Join on-line 6pm to 9pm this evening
What will Brummies be eating in 2050? There’s food a-plenty in the city now. However, a significant proportion of us eat highly processed, high calorie crud.
So how much of a problem is food poverty in the city today? What are the factors that could redress things? And what might make matters worse?
That’s the topic for the New Optimists Forum this evening.
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Join a conversation on food poverty in Brum on 9th February
On 9th February between 6pm and around 9pm, these people (from left to right: Jim Parle, Lucy Bastin, Nick Booth, Farida Vis, Sandy Taylor and Parveen Mehta) will be discussing food poverty in Birmingham, the factors and events could worsen or ameliorate the situation towards 2050.
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Will the lights go out?
Could Birmingham do an industrial-city version of what’s been achieved on the Isle of Eigg; i.e. become energy self-sufficient?
The islanders have achieved much through the demand side. Here in Birmingham, we’re about to do something radical on the supply side.
Aston’s EBRI looks set to be the beginning of a game-changer — and in the first instance for Birmingham.
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Feeding nine billion in 2050: Insect sushi anyone?
For all the action, fun and fanfare about people growing their own food, a harsh reality means ginormous scale agriculture and distribution systems are needed to feed cities where, already, over half the world’s population live.
By 2050, the world’s population will be around nine billion. So will we all be fed? And if so, what will we be eating?
Continue reading “Feeding nine billion in 2050: Insect sushi anyone?”