Institute For The Future

Food Futures Lab launches research at Expo Milano

From California's Bay Area to Emilia-Romagna, Italy, epicenters in our global food system integrate their unique entrepreneurial and food cultures into food innovation and design. While we all face global challenges like hunger and climate change, these regions are using their own combinations of technology, creativity, and culinary legacy to develop local responses that have the potential to reimagine the future of food at home and on a global scale.

As we look to our make a resilient, equitable, and delicious future of food, how can we harness the innovation emerging in these regions to impact change? How might these epicenters connect and collaborate to accelerate change on a global scale? What local constraints and opportunities inspire creativity for all of us?

Join the IFTF Food Futures Lab as we launch this research initiative to map the food ecosystems in these epicenters that are accelerating innovation. From our home in Silicon Valley, the center of California’s agricultural powerhouses and the Bay Area’s dynamic food culture, we’ll be traveling to Emilia Romagna, Italy, and then on to the 2015 Expo Milano to search for signals of change from around the world. Find us in the USA Pavillion at the Expo Milano and in Reggio Emilia, where we will convene a group of leading-edge thinkers to help us draw insights for the future of food in Emilia-Romagna, one of the world’s most influential culinary and agricultural regions, and the world.

Research Launch Highlights

• Meeting with the Italian Minister of Agriculture to launch our research at the Expo Milano.

• Immersion at the Expo Milano to discover global signals for the future of food production, distribution, manufacturing, shopping, and eating and conduct on-the-ground futures ethnographic interviews with people from around the world.

• A “field guide to the future” that invites the estimated 29 million visitors to the Expo and anyone around the world to help us map the future of food.

• Visits with producers of historic products such as balsamic vinegar of Modena and Parmigiano Reggiano who are integrating new technology with traditional practices.

• A forecasting workshop with DIY technologists, nutritionists, food designers and technologists, entrepreneurs, and experts from across Emilia Romagna who have global influence—such as Tetra Pak, Barilla, Alce Nero, and the European Food Safety Authority—to create shared scenarios from divergent viewpoints and shape IFTF’s research.

• A public presentation of our research at the USA Pavilion's rooftop terrace on Friday, June 26 at 4:00 pm, with Rebecca Chesney and Sarah Smith.

• A keynote speech by Miriam Lueck Avery at the European Commission’s Food Safety and Nutrition in 2050 conference on Friday, July 17.

As we search the globe for answers to these questions, we’ll identify the critical technologies, social innovations, and market opportunities shaping agriculture, food distribution, manufacturing, retail, and eating experiences. We'll convene today’s pioneers in food production start-ups, DIY and synthetic biology movements, social entrepreneurship, and systems thinking to surface fresh perspectives on reinventing the food system.

We want you to join us!

• Want to be a food futurist? Download the field guide to contribute your own signals and interviews of innovation happening in your region.
• Follow us at @iftf and on our Facebook page.
• Contact John Clamme | [email protected] | 650-233-9517

We are grateful to Anne Hamersky Media for video production in San Francisco and Karabo Mooki for Food Innovation Program footage in Reggio Emilia, Italy.