Food and Culture

Small group to start

Why we’re here:

  • local food movement, price premiums, food justice, ideals vs reality
  • interest in traditional diets and nutrient-dense foods
  • gardening, international smallholders, community farms and non-commercial farmers growing for personal consumption, not for sale
  • want to be fly on the wall

Diversity of cultures, rich and poor, all have an interest in local food

Mike asked if Jamie [me] spoke about Greenmarket demographics and SNAP for a few minutes

What is the technology that influences the culture of food?

CoolBot provide a system for setting up an improvised walkin cooler just using an air-conditioner

Food Safety issues, like the lettuce e. coli outbreak, dealing with FSMA, how do small farmers deal with the cost

who pays the costs of increased food safety regulations? consumers?

What is pre-washed? Is that safer?

SNAP benefits can’t be used for online purchases

What are the technical requirements and regulations that online stores could sell to SNAP customers

Amazon selling food via Whole Foods and delivery

As a farmer the perception of what’s “desirable to a farmer” is different from what developers think

Farmers begrudgingly play ball with the big players (distributors, supermarkets, dairy coops, etc)

What consumers want isn’t what food producers want; the big players often push what the consumer want on the producer

Food industry is the one industry where the consumer has the right to tell the producer how to do their job

Few options for food producers when faced with that kind of pressure (change your production methods or go out of business)

Sunk costs

We’re producing things in the most efficient AND sustainable way we can

Efforts go to educating consumers on the healthful, environmentally friendly benefits of these new innovative products

Everyone is going to eat, regardless, so at one point are educational efforts just wasted

Creating a brand around “good science”

Has science overspent its “trust capital”?

Obsession with cleanliness and antibiotics, vs new understanding of the gut biome etc

How prevalent are subtherapeutic antibiotics and hormone use, actually?

IoT solutions for replacing hormonal treatments

Is meat consumption going away in the next few generations?