Fuel to Fork | Feed podcast

<p>From October-December 2024, <b>Fuel to Fork</b> is taking over <b>Feed: a food systems podcast</b>. <br><br>Fossil fuels are the lifeblood of our food system. This 7-episode series exposes their hidden role in the food we eat– revealing how food accounts for 15% of global fossil fuel use. If we want to tackle climate change, we can't leave food off the plate.</p><p><br>Fuel to Fork is a collaboration between <a href="https://tabledebates.org/">TABLE</a>, <a href="https://ipes-food.org/">IPES-Food</a>, and the <a href="https://futureoffood.org/">Global Alliance for the Future of Food</a>.<br><br>Feed, a project of TABLE, is in conversation with diverse experts who are trying to transform the food system. TABLE is a collaboration between the University of Oxford, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Wageningen University in the Netherlands, National Autonomous University of Mexico and University of the Andes in Colombia. This podcast is operated by SLU. <br><br>For more info, visit https://tabledebates.org/podcast/ </p>

Raj Patel on Fossil Fuels, Food, and Columbus’s Wicked Legacy

What are the hidden costs of our current food system and its deep reliance on fossil fuels, a system that burdens citizens with financial, health and environmental consequences? With Raj Patel, research professor at the University Texas at Austin and IPES-Food panel member, we cover this and Christopher Columbus's wicked legacy, middle-class environmentalism, and what a food system free of fossil fuels could look like. We thought this extended interview with Raj Patel was so compelling ...

11-14
32:57

4. Farm machinery, precision agriculture, big data

Fossil fuels are woven into nearly every aspect of modern agriculture - from powering farm machinery to creating plastics and supporting data-driven tech like precision agriculture. But what would it take to reduce or even eliminate their use on farms? We dive into both replacement technologies and transformative food production methods like agroecology, exploring the obstacles and limitations of scaling different solutions. Visit the episode webpage for more resources.This series is powered ...

11-07
40:01

3. Do we need fossil agrochemicals to feed the world?

Since 2020, over 120 million tonnes of nitrogen fertilizer have been produced annually—a number set to rise by 50% by 2050. It’s easy to assume this is non-negotiable, that without it, we’d face a food crisis. But do we really need all this fossil-based input? As it turns out, there are many ways we can reverse this trend - from curbing overuse and adopting alternative technologies to rethinking our diets and transforming farming practices. We explore a range of options to ease our dependency...

10-31
48:28

2. The rise of fossil fuels in our food

How did fossil fuels become so embedded in our food systems? We trace this journey from the industrial extraction of guano, through the game-changing Haber-Bosch process, to today’s globalized food system. Along the way, we uncover the hidden impacts on biodiversity, farmworkers, and our oceans—revealing the true cost of this reliance on fossil fuels. In Fuel to Fork, a new podcast series powered by TABLE, IPES-Food and the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, we...

10-24
43:45

1. There's fossil fuels in our food?!

“For many of us, how fossil fuels are integrated across the food chain is highly invisible.” When we bite into a juicy apple, barrels of crude oil and natural gas cylinders might not spring to mind. But fossil fuels are the hidden ingredient behind all of our food. For every calorie that ends up on our plates, around 10 calories of fossil fuels are used. From the diesel powering the tractors to the fertilizer in the field and plastic packaging, fossil fuels are the lifeblood of t...

10-24
37:14

Introducing Fuel to Fork

When we bite into a juicy apple, barrels of crude oil and natural gas cylinders might not spring to mind. But fossil fuels are the hidden ingredient behind all of our food. For every calorie that ends up on our plates, around 10 calories of fossil fuels are used. From the diesel powering the tractors to the fertilizer in the field and plastic packaging, fossil fuels are the lifeblood of the food industry.What are the options to phase out fossil fuels in food and what are the powerful forces s...

10-16
00:34

What biodiversity do you care about?

Are food systems allies or enemies in the fight to save biodiversity? With our planet facing a biodiversity crisis, the answer depends on who you ask and what forms of life we prioritize. We speak with farmers, biophysical modelers, and biologists to explore whether producing food and conserving biodiversity can be achieved at the same time. We also discuss how our diets impact biodiversity, whether farming without soil can be better for biodiversity at large, and what it would take to effect...

10-10
34:46

Valuing nature in our economies (w/ Adan Martinez Cruz)

Environmental economist Adan L. Martinez-Cruz (Senior Lecturer at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), argues that markets are a fundamental aspect of human society. He suggests that assigning a monetary value to natural resources can provide environmental benefits and create economic incentives to achieve them. In this episode, we discuss concept of non-market valuation, consider whether nature has inherent value, and examine whether markets are the best way to ensure fairness i...

08-22
28:46

There is no master metric for biodiversity (with Ville Lähde)

Philosopher and environmental researcher Ville Lähde (with the Finnish BIOS Research Unit) argues that we need to understand biodiversity differently at a fundamental level in order to preserve it. Biodiversity loss is much more than the list of extinct and endangered species. In our conversation, we talk about the myriad food systems and their different relationships with biodiversity, what are the hidden costs of simplifying biodiversity, and why Ville feels closest to biodiversity when wor...

08-15
40:23

Is cultivated "meat" unnatural? Is meat today natural?

While many wonder about the technological hurdles preventing cultivated meat from entering commercial markets, fewer ask a more basic question: will people actually eat it, or will they find it too unnatural? In this episode, we're joined by Cor van der Weele, emeritus professor in philosophy from Wageningen University, who has had a front-row seat to the past 15 years of shifting perceptions of this technology. We'll dive into how a philosopher thinks about “naturalness”, what are the public...

05-09
36:03

Does CRISPR make our food unnatural?

If more and more gene-edited foods become common on our plates, is that a sign of a promising or worrying food future? With Dr. Lauren Crossland-Marr, food anthropologist and host of the podcast A CRISPR Bite, we unpack whether it’s fair to call CRISPR a natural way of "speeding up the breeding" process, whether technological innovations such as gene editing are addressing root causes of food systems challenges, and if there’s space for middle ground on such a polarizing issue.For more ...

05-02
29:38

What's a natural diet? (with Richard Tellström)

What influences the meals we enjoy today? Meal historian and cultural researcher Richard Tellström from Stockholm University suggests that the surrounding natural environments and ecosystems only play a minimal role. Instead, he argues that our choices are primarily shaped by cultural, political and economic forces. This episode dives into the dramatic shifts in Swedish diets over the past century, highlighting how changes such as new food preservation methods in the 1970s, Sweden's entry int...

04-25
18:43

What's a natural diet? (with Amy Styring)

Around 6000 years ago in Northwest Europe, our ancestors transitioned from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary farming. How did their diets change during this time? The field of archaeological sciences and chemistry teamed up to shed new light on this question. In this episode, we ask Amy Styring, archaeological chemist at the University of Oxford, what's her take on a natural diet, whether we overestimate the role of meat in our past diets, and what lessons can we learn today if we have a...

04-18
25:37

Can we eat enough white-tailed deer to restore forest ecosystems?

Is it possible to eat enough white-tailed deer to keep their populations low enough to restore ecosystems? We posed this question to Bernd Blossey, professor at Cornell University who specializes in the management of invasive species and the restoration of disrupted ecological relationships.In this episode, we look at the history of white-tailed deer in the eastern forests of the United States, how many we would need to harvest to keep the population in check, and whether the concept of ecosy...

04-11
31:08

Eating invasive crayfish - a solution to our ecological mess?

Are invasive species natural? If we introduced them, do we have some responsibility to manage them? What if we could reduce their numbers through the natural process of eating?In this episode, Jackie Turner (TABLE) joins crayfish trapper Bob Ring to see if we can eat our way out of one of the environmental problems we’ve created - the spread of invasive American Signal Crayfish into the river Thames. We ask if these invasive crayfish are ‘natural’, how they ended up in London’s iconic river i...

04-04
21:15

Grasshoppers - agricultural pest or sustainable food?

What if we shifted our perspective from seeing some animal species as a problem to seeing them as an abundant and tasty source of food? Over the next few episodes, we’ll hear three "problems" in three regions: grasshoppers as pests in Mexico, invasive crayfish in London and overpopulated white-tailed deer in the United States. With a rising trend for traditional foods, demand for grasshoppers has exploded in Mexico in the last decade--but is it sustainable? We ask sociologist-biologist Elena ...

03-28
25:06

Should food systems be more natural?

“Is a microbe less natural than a cow?” This season we ask scientists, farmers, technologists and philosophers about how natural our food systems should be. In this age where industrial technology has profoundly transformed our eating habits and the landscapes around us, we explore whether we should let nature be our ultimate guide or fully lean into the technological innovations reshaping our world. From the traditional milpa systems of Mexico to the cutting edge laboratories of food scienti...

03-21
44:05

Neena Prasad on the power of ultra-processed foods

People across the world are consuming more ultra-processed foods (UPFs). Will Latin American countries and elsewhere follow the path of the US and the UK, where over half of calories consumed now come from UPFs? Dr Neena Prasad, director of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Food Policy Program, joins us to talk about the power of and the power behind UPFs. We talk about the utility and harms of processing foods, the links between the tobacco industry and UPFs, and the public health measures adv...

01-18
41:32

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

For our last episode of the second season of Feed, we speak with TABLE director Tara Garnett of the University of Oxford, and TABLE strategic director Sigrid Wertheim-Heck of Wageningen University to reflect on our past 15 episodes. We talk about what surprised us, what we learned, and what we missed across the season. Our wide ranging conversation covered the power of language, the power of imagination, the power of narratives, non-human power and more.If you have any comments, questions or ...

04-06
49:59

Food in prisons (with Lucy Vincent and Linda Kjær Minke)

As this season on power in the food system comes to a close, we wanted to focus on how food is consumed in institutions - places where people typically have less agency over their own food choices. In this episode we’re focusing on food in prisons in the United Kingdom and Denmark. We're joined by Lucy Vincent, Chief Executive and Founder of the charity Food Behind Bars in the UK, and Linda Kjær Minke, a criminology professor at the University of Southern Denmark who researches food dynamics ...

03-09
01:05:23

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