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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

“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...

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...

“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...

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...

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...

How do philosophers, animal welfare scientists, and farmers differ in their understanding of what a good future for farmed animals looks like? TABLE researcher Tamsin Blaxter discusses the complex relationships between humans and non-human animals and how these connections shape our food choices. We talk about who gets to speak with authority on these topics, the connections between scientific research and animal welfare regulations, and our own experiences with eating and not eating...

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...

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...

The idea that more natural food – food which hasn’t been transformed by human and industrial intervention – is best for us is a powerful one. Psychologists have found a strong preference for that which is “natural”, even when people differ in what they understand that term to mean. But naturalness is a muddle – we are often signalled by advertising to see heavily manufactured foods as “natural”; the pioneers of cereal manufacturing were the greatest advocates of “natural” food in the early 20...

It feels like one of the biggest questions of our time: what do we do about meat? Rather than choosing either extreme – business as usual, or ruling out meat altogether – some people suggest the best approach is one of ‘less and better meat’. But how much less is ‘less’? And which meat is ‘better’? How do we even begin to answer these questions?"Less and Better?" is an eight-part podcast series co-hosted by Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham at Farmerama Radio. Listen to the rest of the series he...

500 scientists from 60 countries gathered at the 5th Global Food Security Conference in Leuven, Belgium. Instead of saying, "you had to be there," we bring you voices and reflections from the conference. Host Matthew Kessler recorded dozens of interviews, asking experts what key messages they want to deliver to those with the power to change food systems, what are the economics of food systems transformation, and which solutions to make food systems more resilient deserve more attention. This...

500 scientists from 60 countries gathered at the 5th Global Food Security Conference in Leuven, Belgium. Instead of saying, "you had to be there," we bring you voices and reflections from the conference. Host Matthew Kessler recorded dozens of interviews, asking experts what key messages they want to deliver to those with the power to change food systems, what are the economics of food systems transformation, and which solutions to make food systems more resilient deserve more attention. This...

500 scientists from 60 countries gathered at the 5th Global Food Security Conference in Leuven, Belgium. Instead of saying, "you had to be there," we bring you voices and reflections from the conference. Host Matthew Kessler recorded dozens of interviews, asking experts what key messages they want to deliver to those with the power to change food systems, what are the economics of food systems transformation, and which solutions to make food systems more resilient deserve more attention. This...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...