Future Now
The IFTF Blog
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Forecast the Future of Food with IFTF
For 46 years, Institute for the Future has pioneered new ways to build foresight for a world undergoing rapid change. As part of our work, we explore the tensions and possibilities of food futures—from everyday food choices around the world, to alternative futures emerging from global food web dynamics, to the ways technology might help us overcome limitations.
The importance of thinking about the future of food has never been greater. During the past century our global food system has been radically transformed by efficiency, convenience, and taste. But it is already clear that these strategies will not work for future generations. Today’s planetary challenges present an urgent call to rethink our whole food system—a call that we can no longer ignore.
Rethinking food not only solves food system problems—the “leverage power of food” extends to other challenges the next decade presents. We can make our bodies and environment healthier and more resilient, and also reshape our communities and infrastructure systems, foster art and creativity, and encourage openness and transparency.
At IFTF, we seek to connect the greatest challenges of the coming decades with today’s opportunities for transformation, to bring systematic futures thinking to food system efforts around the world. Positioned at the center of Silicon Valley, California’s agricultural powerhouses, and the Bay Area food culture, we have our finger on the pulse of this epicenter of change, and draw links to such hubs around the world. Our aim is to align the minds, innovations, and resources shaping the future of food under a shared understanding of how to take the long-term view—one that encompasses multiple scales, levels of uncertainty, and radically different possible futures.
Building on our 2013 map, Seeds of Disruption: How Technology is Remaking the Future of Food—recently featured in FastCompany Co.EXIST—we are expanding and extending our research to broader groups of food system hackers, activists, thinkers, innovators, and eaters—including you.
Join us on this journey!
We invite you to join us as we collaboratively forecast the future of food, immerse in food hubs to understand what the future of food might look like, and drive action today to make a resilient future of food. These are just a few of our upcoming events and projects—stay tuned to our website, Facebook, and Twitter for more!
The Future of Food in 20 Objects
August 7-17
Cities across the USA
What object tells your story about the future of food? Share your ideas with IFTF researcher Sarah Smith ([email protected]) as she travels across America on the Millennial Trains Project, recording stories of change emerging from Portland to New York City. 20 objects, 10 days, 7 cities, unlimited future possibilities!
Panel + Networking: Alternative Proteins, Alternative Futures
August 26
Consulate General of the Netherlands, San Francisco, California
It’s well documented that meeting future demand for meat in the ways we do today will result in environmental degradation and public health deterioration. According to Mark Post, lead developer of the first lab-grown cultured beef burger, “the question is not whether we should come up with alternatives for meat and stock breeding. The question is which alternatives, and how quickly we can deliver them.”
Join Institute for the Future, the Netherlands Office of Science and Technology, special guest Mark Post, cultured beef ethnographer Benjamin Wurgaft, and more for a panel exploring alternative proteins and alternative futures. Register now for this public event.
Open Cities Immersion: How San Francisco is Changing the Way the World Eats
October 2
San Francisco, California
California has been at the forefront of food system reinvention for decades. From Napa Valley to the Central Valley, farmers, manufacturers, and chefs have achieved unprecedented agricultural yields, revived age-old production methods with modern twists, and reshaped the way many Americans think about food. Yet a new wave of food innovation is taking shape, drawing from Silicon Valley’s culture of hacking, rapid prototyping, and fast-paced scaling to transform what the world eats. Insect flours, crowdfunded cooking appliances, and meat alternatives are becoming the norm in this new landscape.
Join IFTF in San Francisco as we journey into this new food culture, meeting the game changers who are rethinking food to remake the world. Part of IFTF’s largest ever research conference and public festival, at this immersion you’ll also be able to engage in a cross-sectional, multi-stakeholder conversation about the future. Contact Tom Conger ([email protected]) to join.
Want to get involved?
For more information about our research, sponsorships, collaborations, and events, please contact John Clamme | [email protected] | 650-233-9517
This post is part of IFTF’s food futures research—recently featured in FastCompany Co.EXIST—which brings systematic futures thinking to food system efforts around the world. Our long-term view encompasses multiple scales, levels of uncertainty, and radically different possible futures. We develop foresight to help others develop insight and take action toward impactful, transformative, resilient change.