Issue 42: Evolving the Global Economy to Feed the Multitude
Kwame Richardson FRSA
Social entrepreneur and lawyer focused on the future of food at Multitude Advisors, part of Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub
Dear Community,
Welcome to the 42nd installment of the Eat Live Connect newsletter, where we curate a monthly round-up of content at the intersection of economics, technology, and creativity for agripreneurs. We recently updated our newsletter's name and purpose to reflect our lifestyle brand discussed in Issue 36, Feeding with Multitude.
In our last installment, we discussed Multitude’s sustainable impact goal to feed all vulnerable people, particularly children. However, zero hunger will not occur until the global economy evolves to do so. No one has to endure hunger given that food is over-consumed and wasted everyday; food that can feed everyone. We can find new ways to transact in our food system, where resources are distributed more sustainably.
The global community is increasingly making purchases based on issues such as the decrease of our carbon footprint as well as fair working conditions and wages for food workers. Why wouldn’t consumers make purchases that feed the vulnerable, especially when there is sufficient supply to do so?
In this edition, we highlight content that can be explored to build a society where hunger does not exist. First, we weigh how artists can take a leadership role in this evolution. Next, we survey avenues into evolving to a more sustainable economic system. Then, we look into designing business models that could lead to zero hunger. Lastly, we consider our cutting edge ability to create global experiences that can lead to zero hunger. We use Issue 35 as the theoretical underpinning to this piece.
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Here are the top voices that inspired us this month:
Perception: Art & Science
Art: How can artists take a leadership role in reaching zero hunger?
When artists have an authentic relationship with — or to — a brand and actually enjoy their products as consumers first, they can be some of the best advocates for other consumers and can lead brands to make product decisions that are popular among consumers, well-received in the market, and that positively impact the bottom line — not to mention creating a?feel-good story for all….a creator, not only as a superstar, but at any level, can utilize their platform to catalyze adoption, innovation and engagement in the food and beverage industry. —Derrick Holman, Media, Marketing, Business Development at UnitedMasters + Translation
Derrick Holman, Exploring Chance The Rapper’s Undeniable Influence on the Food & Beverage Industry, Translation — Pulse of Culture (Medium), 27 October 2022.
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Science: How can we evolve into a more sustainable global economy?
[Economics] has basically come to shape our society in rather fundamental ways--different economic theories are showing different qualities to constitute the essence of human nature. So, the dominant school of economics assumes that human beings are essentially selfish. The dominance of this theory has normalized self-seeking behavior. These days people who act in altruistic ways are either derided as suckers or are suspected of having some selfish ulterior motive. This has created a society where it is difficult to cooperate with each other. Where it is difficult to advocate a policy that takes that social collective interest into account. Now everything is supposed to be about individual gains or losses and--people are supposed to vote all according to their economic gains and so on. Indeed, this has clearly been proven wrong. —Ha-Joon Chang, Author of Edible Economics and a Professor of Economics at 英国剑桥大学
Steven George, Edible economics, The royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce. (video), 27 October 2022, 48 minutes.
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The problem is that the underlying forces of production hardware revolutionizes itself every generation after 1870. While the years 1000 to 1870 take us from feudalism and farming to commerce and gunpowder empires to steam power, after 1870, we go [from] steam power to the Second Industrial Revolution technologies to mass production to differentiated production and mass consumption. Then, from that to the global value chain economy. And now we're seeing another transformation of the forces of production to the info-biotech economy.
So, every generation, people have had to figure out how do we rewrite the sociological, political, economic software of human relationships and organization. So, that it now runs successfully on this totally new set of underlying forces of production and technologically driven hardware. And to have to rewrite how society works every generation so that the running code does not crash catastrophically all the time is an extremely difficult task. Plus, we have the memory of the inheritance of all the force and fraud games run by elites in the past. —Brad DeLong, Author of Slouching Towards Utopia and a Professor of Economics at the 美国加州大学伯克利分校
Gillian Tett, Slouching towards utopia, The royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce. (video), 13 October 2022, 44 minutes.
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Transforming the food system offers a win-win solution for the environment, food security and sustainable economies. Regenerative practices, such as improving soil health, using water effectively and restoring carbon sinks, will not only benefit the environment, but also create robust food systems that are more resilient towards extreme climate events like droughts and floods. This, in combination with an effort to shift away from a traditional linear food model to a circular one, will make strides in combating food insecurity. Additionally, it provides a green growth investment opportunity, with regenerative agricultural practices and innovative biotechnologies estimated to have the potential to?generate $4.5 trillion of additional revenues annually. But to transform the food system, we cannot work in isolation. —Dr Andy Zynga, CEO of EIT Food
A. M. (Andy) Zynga, COP27: putting food systems at the very heart of the climate negotiations, EIT Food (LinkedIn), 21 October 2022.
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Production: Engineering and Design
Engineering: How can we build sustainable business models to reach zero hunger?
I think what consumers learned, as a global self, is that we're interconnected whether we like it or not. So, some of us missed those connections-- being able to be with the people…. Why it's so important is [based] on two things that I think are going to hold.
One thing…is ideas of health and wellness. So, people are much more dialed into their health. You know, how do I stave off disease? How do I stave off any type of chronic disease? How do I stay healthy--not only for myself but for my family? …I think technology will get more embedded in that in terms of wearables--monitoring your microbiome--this type of stuff. [Also,] I think people are very much more aware of their mental health and need for self-care, needing to be with others…
The other one I think that we really see, even in small ways, is this whole idea of gathering and entertaining. Really understanding what it means to break bread, even if it's with one other person, even if it's virtually. —Tanya Rodriguez, Senior Cultural Anthropologist at Hormel Foods
Ethan Watters, The Intersection of Food & Culture, Inspired (video) 25 October 2022, 27 minutes.
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This is the opportunity to rethink this. We can't just rebuild in the old vein. Now is the time as we start to emerge to think about what practices can we put in place to try and address some of those vulnerabilities and weaknesses. So, looking at the economic model: what revenue diversification are there? How do we deploy the technological innovation to improve margins? How can we take a different route in terms of menu planning or operations really to bring the the cost of goods down?
And equally as we've seen…many people exit the restaurant industry. So, operators are now having to be very inventive about how we can make this a more compelling place to work. But, working within the margins that they are having to. It's a complicated ecosystem and there's no silver bullet to any of this. But, I think it's about pulling all of those different levers to try to adopt a new approach. —Clare Reichenbach, CEO of the The James Beard Foundation
Dani Nierenberg, Clare Reichenbach on Chef Advocacy and Restaurants as a Nexus for Change, Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg (by Food Tank) (podcast), 20 October 2022, 35 minutes.
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I honestly think that 100 years from now we will have seen the replacement of fast-food joints by community cafeterias, community restaurants, whatever. Where good food is served on demand to people of all incomes and at almost any time. We have made electricity a public utility, water a public utility, roads and transportation are most certainly public utilities.
When we recognize how important food is and the impact that agriculture has and that eating has. When we not only recognize it but own it and say we want to do this right. We will say eating food is a right. Eating good food, affordable food, nutritious food is the right for everybody that everybody shares--and how do we build a society that provides that food for everyone…We need a joint communal effort to make sure that we can all eat well, to counter this private effort, to make sure that food is profitable even if it's not good for us. —Mark Bittman, Author of Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal
Kirk Johnson, An Evening with Mark Bittman: The History and Future of Food, National Museum of Natural History (video), 17 October 2022 (archived from 5 May 2021), 57 minutes.
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Design: How can emerging technology create a global experience with zero hunger?
I'm going to talk today about the immersive era. This is an era in which realities are being subsumed in different ways. I think it's a moment of talking about what is hybrid. We're at a point where we're all extending our reality through VR, augmented reality, wearables. But also the idea of consciousness shapeshifting states is nothing new…In this moment, many of you have your consciousness extended across maybe your phone, your laptop, your social media. We're thinking about the world in many different ways and your brain will shift and extend in order to incorporate these as part of your lived experience.
So, in this immersive era for the creative industry, there are new design frontiers which are being unlocked. Because we're existing in a way that is a little bit more shapeshifting, we can work across boundaries, we can work across platforms and disciplines in a way that we haven't been able to do before. There is a new kind of creative freedom and one which is going to help in resetting values in a way that hasn't been possible before. I don't know exactly what happens next with this evolution, but I can talk to you about how we might want to interpret this particular era…
So, I'm going to bring it back to all of you today. There is room for all of us to engage here. You need to engage and stake your own flag. You need to stake your claim to the future. You need to trust yourself and to trust in the collective. Because at the end of it, you're going to be able to lift each other up in ways that you might not have imagined yet. Thank you. —Suhair Khan, Founder & Director at open-ended
Creativity in the Immersive Age: Exploring New Values, TedX Talks (video), 28 October 2022, 15 minutes.
领英推荐
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Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter and we wish everyone a pleasant month.
Please forward this newsletter to those who may be interested in this content.
Warm regards
Kwame Richardson
Founder
Multitude Advisors Ltd
RESOURCES AND OTHER CONTENT
Resources
6th Annual CIDA Workshop, Cornell Institute for Digital Agriculture - 美国康奈尔大学
Grow-NY Summit to inspire conversation and innovation, Cornell Chronicle - 美国康奈尔大学
Other Content
Note: the below content is structured under the framework from Issue 1.
Opportunity
Data Snapshot: African?agrifoodtech?entrepreneurs and investors are focusing on the supply chain, AgFunder News
Business Models
Innovation
World?Food?Forum exploring how science, tech, innovation can boost Africa's?agriculture, Farmers Review Africa
Competition
Crispim Moreira | Transformation of?agrifood?system to promote healthy diet | In Focus, Jamaica Gleaner
Leadership
Cornell to co-lead UN agency's new?agrifood?initiative, Cornell Chronicle - 美国康奈尔大学
Young Farmers and Ranchers: Future Leaders in?Agriculture?- American Farm Bureau Federation, American Farm Bureau Federation
Lifestyle
Cheap, delicious - and only three years out of date: my week of eating?food?past its best-before, The Guardian
Foods?that boost your immune system: 4 nutritionists share what they eat during the cold season, CNBC
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