Eating Tomorrow

Maybe it was the way your childhood home smelled on Thanksgiving, maybe it was that slice of watermelon outside on a hot day, maybe it was the first time you tried that unfamiliar food you never thought you would like. Whatever it was, it left an impression on you. It created a deep and unforgettable memory. And it is something you return to over and over again. We look at those culinary moments and the legacies that brought us where we are today. While it might seem strange to start a conversation about the future of food with the past, those moments shape how we look forward.  In this first episode of Eating Tomorrow, we explore the history of food, from topics such as heritage seeds to heirloom recipes — with a focus on how history is, even still, directly affecting the future of food. What choices got us to where we are? What do we need to change? What do we need to preserve? For complete show notes and more of the future food main course, go to https://ussoy.org/eating-tomorrow-podcast-series/.

Who among us has not, upon awakening to the glory of a weekend morning, wondered what breakfast would be like if all the bacon were as smooth as granite? Or perfectly crispy? What if the eggs in the pan gave off a cinnamon aroma or if the sizzling sausage tasted like lox?  Maybe that got a little weird. But it is bound to. After all, we are now traversing the fringes of food science, where cutting-edge research reshapes the future of what we put in our mouths. These innovations expand the scope of what is possible. Some of those expansions are exciting. Some may be uncomfortable.  In this episode of Eating Tomorrow, we explore the scientific advancements in food technologies. There will be resurrected extinct mammal sliders, cell-cultured chicken thighs, and printed ribeye steak from plastic bottles. More than an entertaining tour of the possible, the purpose of this journey is for you to determine what future you want based on the future that could be. How does exploring the edges of science inspire us to make different choices today? What are the ethical concerns we have about the application of science to our food? For complete show notes and more of the future food main course, go to https://ussoy.org/eating-tomorrow-podcast-series/.

In this series, we uncover a lot of oddities in our journey into the future of food. But no matter what kinds of food we hope to have in the future, one thing remains: we will be reliant upon our Earth to provide it. Sometimes that connection to the Earth is hidden under lab science and technological advancement, however, at some point in the journey to your future dinner plate, that food was reliant upon our natural world for energy, nutrients, and sunlight.  And so that compels a simple question: With a rising global population and increased need for protein-rich foods, does our natural world have what it takes to provide those preferred future dinners? In this episode of Eating Tomorrow, we explore what it will take to produce the foods of the future. We take inventory of our already and soon-to-be endangered foods, investigate alternative farming techniques, and regenerative solutions. Don’t be surprised if you walk away with more ideas about what is possible even though the theme of this episode is about our present-day limits.  What more is possible for the future of food if we acknowledge our limits? For complete show notes and more of the future food main course, go to https://ussoy.org/eating-tomorrow-podcast-series/.

Try this. Close your eyes. Add ten years to your age. Now, think about sitting down to dinner in your house. Who else is there? Where is your house? What kind of music are each of you streaming into your personalized experience domes?  What happens when a lot of us try to think about the future is we drift into fanciful science fiction. However, the fact is a lot of those ideas we think are so distant are already here. Printable foods, robot nutritionists, and edible packaging all exist right now. In this episode of Eating Tomorrow, we uncover the not-so-obvious, quiet trends that have the potential to drastically impact the future of food. We examine the human values, assumptions, and traditions that define a “good food.” And, of course, it would not be an episode about the future of food without talking about artificial intelligence.  What are the trends on the horizon that could disrupt the future of food? What assumptions do we make about food and what it means to us? For complete show notes and more of the future food main course, go to https://ussoy.org/eating-tomorrow-podcast-series/.

Every day your social media feed is full of new food and diet experts, some new technology, another report of endangered foods, and the global impact of water shortages. All of this can overwhelm, and, in some cases, make attempts to solve challenges feel impossible. Something important to remember is that it is not just the world that is constantly changing but you are as well. What is possible in the future is dependent on what we do in our present. We, with our choices, have the chance to influence what is to come. In this episode of Eating Tomorrow, we venture into the world around us with a new set of eyes. We convert limitations into possibilities. We transform trash into treasure. We yum the usual yuck. Be prepared to break taboos and adjust your vision to include the impacts of climate change and the future that is already upon us. How can we look at the world around us in a new way that creates hope for our future? Who are some of the people who are making possibility more urgent? For complete show notes and more of the future food main course, go to https://ussoy.org/eating-tomorrow-podcast-series/.

You likely noticed that soy has played a part in a lot of our episodes of Eating Tomorrow. Indeed, our foray into the future of food forest was inspired and sponsored by the work of U.S. Soy and the farmer families it represents.  A simple search will reveal a wide range of attitudes about soy and its role in our lives today. However, what you may not be able to quickly find is what role it could play in our lives tomorrow.  In this episode of Eating Tomorrow, we hear directly from an Iowa-based father-son soybean farming duo. We learn about their embrace of production innovations, their sustainability practices, and how soy’s versatility enables its resilience. Above all, we learn how soy is writing a story about the future of food. Why would soybean producing families be directly concerned about the future of food? For complete show notes and more of the future food main course, go to https://ussoy.org/eating-tomorrow-podcast-series/.