Food and technology are two constants of everyday life. If you’ve been following our Food Loves Tech expo (happening this weekend!), then you know that we regularly track where the two overlap, and starting November 16, we’re turning some of these stories into the very first season of our brand new podcast In the Field with Edible Brooklyn.
So why are we, a local food magazine, focusing on tech in our first season? Well besides both subjects being ubiquitous, New York City is one of the hotbeds of so-called “foodtech” innovation, and the digital tools that have emerged over the past decade can—at their best—be ways to scale the type of food system we at Edible want: one that’s sustainable, equitable, nutritious and delicious.
To be sure, though, not all improvements are the result of some new app, gadget or algorithm. That’s why we celebrate positive innovation by all means—high-tech, low-tech or otherwise—whether that’s sophisticated community-based composting operations or teaching job-focused English to members of the food industry. We also don’t forget the essential role that government has to play in creating a better food system either. Although it’s hard to expect much of anything from the feds these days (vote!), democracy happens locally, and we should all hold our elected officials at all levels of government accountable.
So (before my midterm election anxiety knocks me off track) about the podcast: In the Field with Edible Brooklyn’s first season gets into the tech behind the food we eat and the tech that does not belong in our dinner. Plus we talk about the tech that doesn’t exist yet—but should.
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Hosted by yours truly, we go inside Blue Hill and Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture—two beacons of sustainable food—to discover how they harness tech both in the dining room and on the farm. Learn why almost one-third of all the world’s food goes to waste from Food Tank’s Danielle Nierenberg, and find out what you can do about it at home with Bon Appetit’s Brad Leone. Join us underground in Manhattan and on a rooftop in Brooklyn as we enter high-tech growing operations to see how startups are redefining local food (this episode’s basically an audio version of this story). Wrap your head around CRISPR—the emerging genetic engineering technology that’s already editing crop and livestock DNA—and consider what it means for people and the planet. Finally, get the DL on oat milk, the latest plant-milk craze, and listen as we test it out in a multi-course oat-milk-in-every-dish feast (including these oat milk cream pies)—we are a food magazine, after all.
Get inspired to invent, to plant, to cook and to stay informed. Listen to the trailer at the top of this post, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts,and keep an ear out for new episodes every two weeks through January.
The first season of In the Field with Edible Brooklyn is produced by the insanely talented Kat Aaron and brought to you by Oatly.
You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn, Overcast and Pocket Casts.
