Feed: a food systems podcast

Επεισόδια

• Bonus. China's Food Future (Part 1) 25.06.2026 44λ

  China is currently the world's largest importer of agricultural products, buying 60% of globally traded soy. But a 2026 consultation paper by SystemIQ argues China may be approaching a turning point. In the coming decades, China could shift from being a net food importer to net food exporter of animal proteins. We dive into the analysis with the paper's authors to see how plausible that scenario might be, what it would take to get there including the role of alternative proteins in that futur...
• Feeding 1 in 6. Small mighty fish farms 11.06.2026 50λ

  In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping's government decided not to regulate its fishing sector. What grew out of that space was extraordinary. Today China produces 76 million tonnes of seafood a year, and a mounting environmental cost. This episode follows the small farms and the global infrastructure that connects them, and asks what happens when a government tries to course correct a system it deliberately set loose. For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/ epi...
• Feeding 1 in 6. Who grows the rice 03.06.2026 43λ

  One-third of the world's rice is grown in China, on less than a fifth of the world's rice-growing area, by farmers whose average age is over 55, in a countryside that is slowly emptying. This episode asks how that's possible, and how much longer it can last. For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/ episode101 Want to share your reflections on the episode? Send us an email or voice memo to podcast@tabledebates.org Guests Lena Kaufmann, Social Anthropo...
• Feeding 1 in 6. Vertical pork 28.05.2026 59λ

  Today China produces roughly half the world's pork. Getting there required swine genetics from multiple continents, feed from Brazil, and a disease outbreak that wiped out hundreds of millions of animals. This episode asks how they did it, and what that cost - to the household pig, to the smallholder farmer, and to ecosystems thousands of kilometers away. For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/ episode100 Want to share your reflections on the episode?...
• Feeding 1 in 6. Can you feed the people? 21.05.2026 37λ

  In sixty years China moved from catastrophic famine to feeding 1.4 billion people. This episode asks how that transformation happened - and what it set in motion. For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/ episode99 Want to share your reflections on the episode? Send us an email or voice memo to podcast@tabledebates.org Guests Michelle King, Prof in Chinese History at UNCZhang Hongzhou, Prof in International Political Economy at RSISFengwei Ina Liu, Di...
• Feeding 1 in 6. China and the future of food (Trailer) 13.05.2026 1λ

  In sixty years, China has moved from catastrophic famine to now feeding one in six people on the planet. Following three foods - pork, rice, and fish - this series traces a transformation that has emptied the Chinese countryside, reshaped ecosystems from Brazil to the South China Sea, and produced the high-rise hog farm model that is being exported across the world. We examine the competing priorities driving this transformation, the distributed costs and benefits, and what it means for the r...
• US Soy Farmer on “I can only control the things I can control” 02.04.2026 33λ

  Soy looks different depending on where you sit. For Ryan Britt, who's farming soy, corn, wheat and cattle on over 2,000 hectares in North Central Missouri, it's the crop that reliably pays the bills. In 2025, Ryan found himself squarely in the middle of a global trade story he had very little control over. We talk about what he can control on the farm — cover cropping, no-till, rotations — and why he still advocates for farmers even when he'd rather be on a tractor. Register for the Bolivia s...
• Volts: Can fake meat solve climate change? 05.03.2026 1ώ 30λ

  After several hype years, plant-based and cultivated meat have faced growing skepticism. Lately, the media has written obituaries. And the market value is declining. Bruce Friedrich, founder and president of the Good Food Institute, offers a different view: the long view. Friedrich joined clean energy reporter David Roberts on the Volts podcast to discuss his new book, Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food—and Our Future. It’s an honest conversatio...
• The meat question 04.02.2026 19λ

  Why can reasonable people look at the same evidence on meat—and still eat very differently? Matthew Kessler shares a personal essay reflecting on his time working on livestock farms, conversations with experts across all sides of the issue, and on his own on-and-off relationship with eating animals. For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/ episode95 Want to share your reflections on the episode? Send us an email or voice memo to podcast@tabledebates.or...
• Agroecology and Sustainable Intensification: the values beneath the science 22.01.2026 26λ

  What does “sustainable agriculture” actually mean, and why do scientists disagree about it? This episode explores how two influential scientific discourses - Agroecology and Sustainable Intensification - start from different values, ask different questions, and often talk past each other. Drawing on an interdisciplinary study at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, ecologist Riccardo Bommarco and ethicist Helena Rocklinsberg examine how those different approaches shape research, p...
• The future of food retail, made simple 11.12.2025 34λ

  Most industries have a clear roadmap for transformation. The power sector goes renewable. Cars go electric. But food and agriculture? The world’s most impactful—and most damaging—industry still has no shared path to transformation. Food sustainability consultant and retail expert Mike Barry argues that the future of food hinges on one counterintuitive idea: simplification. And he explains how AI, smarter data, and design can potentially speed up change. For more info, transcript and resources...
• Can we eat better without paying more? 20.11.2025 27λ

  Instead of tell people what to eat, what if we changed what food costs? With Jörgen Larsson (researcher from Chalmers University), we explore a cost-neutral tax reform, one that makes healthier and climate-friendly food cheaper without raising the overall grocery bill. We break down how it works, why it matters, and how to frame it in ways that avoid predictable backlash. For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/ episode92 Want to share your reflec...
• A three course meal in 2050 30.10.2025 34λ

  We invite you to a three course meal in 2050, where climate breakdown has reshaped what and how we eat. Each of the courses is designed to provoke questions about the future of food through taste, visuals, and a bit of discomfort. It’s a story about eating possible futures — and noticing which ones feel delicious, or unsettling. In this episode, we take you behind the scenes of how the meal came together. Bon appétit. For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/po...
• Hunger on our doorstop (Part 2) 09.10.2025 36λ

  Hunger on our Doorstep is a two part podcast about food poverty in the UK. It explores the issues and potential solutions through the eyes of three food campaigners with firsthand experience of food poverty in urban communities, as well as others working to tackle the problem. The often bleak picture of poverty, inequality and exclusion painted in episode one contrasts with inspiring stories of the solutions being put into practice across the country in episode two. This podcast is prod...
• Can we change what a society eats? (with Sarah Lake) 18.09.2025 32λ

  What if changing what we eat wasn’t about persuasion, but about reshaping everyday food choices? With Sarah Lake, CEO of Tilt Collective, we explore how meat and ultra-processed foods came to dominate U.S. diets – and how Tilt Collective is building a future where healthy and sustainable foods compete on convenience, price, and accessibility. For more info, transcript and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/ episode89 Want to share your reflections on the episode? Send us an ...
• Why food needs a systems approach (with Corinna Hawkes) 04.09.2025 24λ

  What do Yorkshire beaches, Sierra Leone’s new food strategy, and New York City school lunches have in common? For Corinna Hawkes, they all shaped her journey toward understanding how systems shape food. In this episode, we trace her path from a childhood fascination with shifting sands to her current role at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Along the way, we ask: what does it actually mean to ‘take a systems approach’ to food? What type of leadership skills are needed to fix food s...
• Hunger on our doorstep (Part 1) 31.07.2025 38λ

  "Hunger on our Doorstep" is a two part podcast about food poverty in the UK. It explores the issues and potential solutions through the eyes of three food campaigners with firsthand experience of food poverty in urban communities, as well as others working to tackle the problem. The often bleak picture of poverty, inequality and exclusion painted in episode one contrasts with inspiring stories of the solutions being put into practice across the country in episode two. This podcast is produc...
• What is food solutionism? And why does it limit us 12.06.2025 40λ

  Why are we drawn to simple fixes for the complex challenge of feeding the world sustainably? Researchers Colin Sage (formerly Cork University) and Garrett Broad (Rowan University) unpack what we're calling "food solutionism"—the tendency to promote single, sweeping solutions, whether high-tech or agroecological, while ignoring context and complexity. They argue for "complicating the narrative early and often", so we can move beyond binary thinking and better understand the trade-offs, limits,...
• Food Systems, Rice and Power in Southeast Asia (with Thin Lei Win) 22.05.2025 30λ

  Why does Myanmar, often called the "rice bowl of Southeast Asia," continue to struggle with high rates of malnutrition? In this episode, journalist Thin Lei Win helps us unpack how political decisions, land ownership, and regional power dynamics shape food systems in Myanmar and beyond. We explore how issues like palm oil expansion and rice production connect to wider challenges around climate and biodiversity—and why lasting change remains difficult without addressing structural inequalities...
• Is this the future of food? (with Michael Grunwald) 10.04.2025 47λ

  Can humanity feed nearly 10 billion people without frying the planet? That question is at the heart of journalist Michael Grunwald’s provocative argument in Sorry, This Is the Future of Food, his recent New York Times essay and the basis of his forthcoming book, We Are Eating the Earth. He warns that we’re clearing an acre of rainforest every six seconds to grow more food — and even if we quit fossil fuels, we won’t avert climate chaos unless we fix how we use land. In this episode, Grunwald ...