New Food Perspectives

The topic of this Carolyn Steel keynote is food and the world's cities. The award-winning author of 'Hungry City' engages in a discussion about how the world today, just like it was thousands of years ago, is shaped by food. With current rates of population growth and urbanization continuing to climb, it is imperative that society change the way it thinks about food.

To begin her speech, Steel shares various food-related facts with the audience. she reveals that one third of the world's grain crops are fed to animals each year (that are later killed for human consumption), that 19 million hectares of rainforests are lost each year to create arable land and that half of the food produced by the United States each day is thrown away. In other words, the way society interacts with food today is not sustainable for the future.

As a solution to this problem, Steel introcues the concept of 'Sitopia' which means 'Food Place.' Today's world is tremendously shaped by food and it is time that people begin to adopt new perspectives. By placing food at the center of life and family, we can live in a more sustainable manner and protect the future.