We’re paying extra for bread without the “food,” and “organic” is now the luxury label for what our ancestors used to call food. Innovation once meant feeding the hungry. Today it means flavor dust, shelf life, and guilt-free snacking. We’ve solved hunger, but we can’t stop innovating. Some innovations feed people. Others feed the waistlines of the well-fed and the bottom lines of the fat cats. When Innovation Still Had a Purpose Once upon a time, innovation in food was a nec

Part 1: “The Lie of Feeding 10 Billion” We already produce 40% more food than the world needs — and waste a third of it.The problem isn’t hunger or supply. It’s that waste keeps the system profitable. From ag-input giants to traders and policymakers, inefficiency sustains growth. 👉 [Link to Essay 1] Part 2: “From Waste to Worth” If we can subsidize inefficiency in the name of food security,we can subsidize efficiency in the name of resilience.This essay lays out a practical

Every time a new agricultural report lands or a corporate leader steps onto a stage, one phrase returns like a mantra: “We must feed ten billion people.” It’s the industry’s moral armor, the perfect justification for endless growth, resource use, and innovation. Who can argue against feeding the world? But peel away the moral veneer and the narrative collapses. We already produce 40% more food than humanity needs . One-third of it, over 1.3 billion tons, is wasted before it’s

After decades of moral outrage and performative pledges, it’s time to admit that food waste isn’t a moral failure but it’s an accounting one. The system doesn’t need more awareness; it needs better arithmetic. Every government says it wants to reduce food waste. Every company says it already is.And every year, we still throw away 1.3 billion tons of food , roughly one-third of what we produce. The problem isn’t awareness. It’s incentives. We keep subsidizing the wrong behavio

How the quest for abundance turned into the quiet art of waste. Prologue: Aisles of Abundance It began, unexpectedly, in a Costco aisle. I was surrounded by towering stacks of food with boxes of cereal, crates of fruit, aisles of pre-cooked meals, all perfectly packaged and waiting to be consumed. It was impressive and unsettling at once. I remember pausing to think about how much land, water, and energy must have gone into producing all this? How many miles had these product

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