The 1st Annual Food Tank Summit in Washington brought together a wide variety of food industry interests framed by the idea of working together to build a better food system.
Over the course of 10 panels, topics ranged from food safety, women in the workforce, sustainable agriculture, food labeling, the stories behind food, and much, much more.
One particular topic that stood out was a number of panelists’ calls to work with food companies. It’s these types of partnerships that could potentially align interests, or at least make headway toward compromises.
Food Dive attended a majority of the panels over the course of two days, and here are some of the highlights from these panels. Food Dive will be delving deeper into some of these topics in upcoming content, so stay tuned!
Creating Better Urban Food Systems
This panel featured an interesting mix of people across several universities and organizations, including a surprise visit from Food Policy Action’s Tom Colicchio. Some featured topics included school meals and the fact that people are confused about where their food originates.
Waste Not Want Not in the Food System
The keynote speech and the panel itself touched on a variety of issues ranging from questions of reducing food waste to innovations in packaging to better inform consumers.
Keynote speaker Ben Simon noted, “America does not have a food shortage problem. America has a food distribution problem.”
Telling the Story of Food
From journalists to program leads - and moderated by NPR’s Allison Aubrey - this panel harnessed the notion of “compelling characters,” a topic that came up multiple times throughout the panel as introduced by keynote speaker Frank Sesno. Aubrey described "food as a lens" to better attract audiences to larger issues.
Recognizing Workers in the Food System
This panel of passionate speakers delved into the struggles faced by oft-forgotten workers in multiple sectors of the food industry. Moderator Diane Brady of Bloomberg had each group member put themselves in the shoes of those in positions of power, and each had unique views on how to affect change.
Pushing for Better Agriculture Research and Policy
Keynote speaker Jerry Glover called farmers the “true stewards of the planet.”
Earth Policy Institute’s Janet Larsen said, “The future of food depends on a stable climate.”
Topics ranged from climate change to women farmers to diabetes to the political-scientific intersections of the food industry.
True Cost Accounting in the Food System
Patrick Holden of the Sustainable Food Trust and a dairy farmer was the keynote speaker preceding the discussion, and introduced questions of cost and benefits for those in the industry. The panel covered food prices and accessibility to questioning the EPA and FDA safety standards to ways to improve the supply chain.