Transform the Food System

A commercial fisherman turned kelp and oyster farmer, Bren’s award-winning book, Eat Like a Fish, shows us how our oceans offer up a scalable solution to our global climate crisis.Breaking down the walls between land and sea, learn about Bren’s polyculture farming model with GreenWave and his regenerative ocean farm on Thimble Island. We talk about how kelp is set to be the superfood of the future, with Bren telling us that it contains more vitamin C than orange juice, more calcium than milk and more protein than soybeans. Plus, it has the power to sequester five times more carbon than land-based plants. This is a profoundly personal episode that brings us real hope for the future. 

In this episode, Andy answers the question we get asked the most when it comes to regenerative agriculture: could it feed the world? With his own 100 hectare arable farm in Gascony,  his regenerative farming model — Wildfarmed – and the French equivalent of a knighthood for services to agriculture under his belt, there's no one better to dig into the scalability of sustainable arable growing. Andy mentions: John SeymourAlbert HowardFrank Newman TurnerDEFRARodale Institute

Like us, Dan Barber is on a mission to raise the bar on flavour as he shakes up the way food is grown for good. You might know him from the award winning Netflix series Chef’s Table, where he showcased the efforts of farmers, ecologists and nutritionists through one powerful medium: the plate. His conviction that chefs hold tremendous power to enact change through flavour holds a central line at his two restaurants, and in his book, The Third Plate. His most recent endeavour is Row 7 Seeds: a seed company on a mission to democratise flavour. A vital component for building a better food future, which we delve into further in this episode.

Listen in to the second half of Franco's conversation with Alice Waters: chef and founder of Chez Panisse, pioneer of The Edible Schoolyard and slow food activist.  They cover how the schoolyard project has evolved as it's expanded nationwide, why we need to cook with our children and why now's the time for fast food to have its reckoning. We Are What We Eat is available to pre-order now. 

This week it's a titan of the slow food movement: Alice Waters. From dinners for friends at Chez Panisse to taking activism to the classroom with The Edible Schoolyard, her living legacy's making serious dents in the food system. Covering too much ground for one episode, we're taking it across two. Now, we're going back 50 years to when Alice's flavour enlightenment in France convinced her to open the doors of Chez Panisse back home in Berkeley, California. 

Episode 2 of Transform the Food System — our brand new podcast series — is streaming now. This week we’re  speaking to the author of For the Love of Soil and Director of Integrity Soils, Nicole Masters. With boundless  knowledge of life in our soils and a palpable fascination with them, she unpacks the earth in a way that is both unique and totally compelling. It’s not until we learn the value of our soils, our impact on them, and how regenerative agriculture can restore the health of our planet, that we can progress towards a better future for our food system. 

Magnus came into the spotlight as the innovative head chef at Fäviken — the progressive 24 seat restaurant in the Swedish countryside that drew international acclaim before closing in December 2019. His book, Faviken 4015 Days, Beginning to End, covers the lifespan of one of the world's most memorable flavour experiences, combining Magnus' frank, insightful reflections on food and the hospitality industry alongside all the recipes that came out of Fäviken.Today, he's breaking new ground as Academy Director at MAD, where he equips chefs with the skills and resources to make more informed choices and enact positive change. The conversation starts at Axelstorps fruktodling, the fruit orchard where Magnus and his wife nurture 28 varieties of apple tree, 12 of pear and the incredibly rare Black Star Cherries. @magnusfaviken

The food system is opaque. When we start to unpack it, we find that it’s broken and taking its toll on the earth, its people and our economies. When just 15¢ of every dollar spent on food goes back to the grower, and industrialised agriculture mushrooms at the expense of biodiversity, soil health and nutritional density, it’s time to tap into the true cost of our food.Let’s put the power back into the hands of growers, and deliver nutritionally dense produce with phenomenal flavour.The easiest way to join the food system revolution right now is to share, rate, review and subscribe to this podcast. By helping us get the word out you’re adding to the community of voices demanding radical change.Welcome to Transform the Food System with Natoora.  Artwork from Catie St. Jacques @sun_keep