Food, Literature and Culture I.pdf

MODULE 1 FOOD SAFETY I. BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH 15 April 1958 / Birmingham Talking Turkeys! Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas Cos' turkeys just wanna hav fun Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked An every turkey has a Mum. Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas, Don't eat it, keep it alive, It...

MODULE 1 FOOD SAFETY I. BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH 15 April 1958 / Birmingham Talking Turkeys! Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas Cos' turkeys just wanna hav fun Turkeys are cool, turkeys are wicked An every turkey has a Mum. Be nice to yu turkeys dis christmas, Don't eat it, keep it alive, It could be yu mate, an not on your plate Say, Yo! Turkey I'm on your side. I got lots of friends who are turkeys An all of dem fear christmas time, Dey wanna enjoy it, dey say humans destroyed it An humans are out of dere mind, Yeah, I got lots of friends who are turkeys Dey all hav a right to a life, Not to be caged up an genetically made up By any farmer an his wife. Turkeys just wanna play reggae Turkeys just wanna hip-hop Can yu imagine a nice young turkey saying, ÒI cannot wait for de chopÓ, Turkeys like getting presents, dey wanna watch christmas TV, Turkeys hav brains an turkeys feel pain In many ways like yu an me. I once knew a turkey called........ Turkey He said "Benji explain to me please, Who put de turkey in christmas An what happens to christmas trees?", I said "I am not too sure turkey But itÕs nothing to do wid Christ Mass Humans get greedy an waste more dan need be An business men mek loadsa cash'. Be nice to yu turkey dis christmas Invite dem indoors fe sum greens Let dem eat cake an let dem partake In a plate of organic grown beans, Be nice to yu turkey dis christmas An spare dem de cut of de knife, Join Turkeys United an dey'll be delighted An yu will mek new friends 'FOR LIFE'. II. Fighting giants: eco-activist Vandana Shiva on her battle against GM multinationals The formidable Indian environmentalist discusses her 50-year struggle to protect seeds and farmers from the ‘poison cartel’ of corporate agriculture Supported by You don’t have to look very far to find the essence of life, says Vandana Shiva. But in a society caught up in a blur of technological advances, bio-hacks and attempts to improve ourselves and the natural world, she fears we are hellbent on destroying it. “Everything comes from the seed, but we have forgotten that the seed isn’t a machine,” says Shiva. “We think we can engineer life, we can change the carefully organised DNA of a living organism, and there will be no wider impact. But this is a dangerous illusion.” For almost five decades, Shiva has been deeply engaged in the fight for environmental justice in India. Regarded as one of the world’s most formidable environmentalists, she has worked to save forests, shut down polluting mines, exposed the dangers of pesticides, spurred on the global campaign for organic farming, championed ecofeminism and gone up against powerful giant chemical corporations. Her battle to protect the world’s seeds in their natural form – rather than genetically altered and commercially controlled versions – continues to be her life’s work. Shiva’s anti-globalisation philosophy and pilgrimages across India have often been compared to Mahatma Gandhi. Yet while Gandhi became synonymous with the spinning wheel as a symbol of self-reliance, Shiva’s emblem is the seed. Shiva speaking at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 21 years ago. Photograph: Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Now 70, Shiva – who is divorced and has one son – has spent her life refusing to conform to the patriarchal norms so often imposed on women in India, particularly in the 1950s. She has published more than 20 books and when she is not travelling the world for workshops or speaking tours, she spends her time between her office in Delhi and her organic farm in the foothills of the Himalayas. She credits her spirit of resistance to her parents, who were “feminists at a higher level than I’ve ever known – long before we even knew the word ‘feminism’”. After 1947, when India gained independence, her father left the military for a job in the forests of the mountainous state of Uttarakhand, where Shiva was born and brought up always to believe she was equal to men. “The forests were my identity and from an early age the laws of nature captivated me,” she says. There was a race on to develop and patent GM crops, but no one was stopping to ask: what will be the impact on the environment? She was about six when she stumbled on a book of quotes by Albert Einstein buried in a small, musty library in a forest lodge. She was transfixed, determined against all odds to be a physicist. Though science was not taught at her rural convent school, Shiva’s parents encouraged her curiosity and found ways for her to learn. By the time she was in her 20s, she was completing her PhD in quantum physics at a Canadian university. Yet as logging, dams and development wreaked ecological devastation on Uttarakhand’s forests and local peasant women rose up to fight it – a movement known as Chipko – Shiva realised, on returning to India, that her heart lay not with quantum physics but with a different, nagging question. “I couldn’t understand why were we told that new technology brings progress, but everywhere I looked, local people were getting poorer and landscapes were being devastated as soon as this development or new technology came in,” she says. ‘We have forgotten that the seed isn’t a machine.’ Shiva at her Delhi office in 2007. Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/ AFP/Getty In 1982, in her mother’s cow shed in the mountain town of Dehradun, Shiva set up her research foundation, exploring the crossover between science, technology and ecology. She began to document the “green revolution” that swept rural India from the late 1960s, where in a bid to drive up crop yields and avert famine, the government had pushed farmers to introduce technology, mechanisation and agrochemicals. It instilled in her a lifelong opposition to industrial interference in agriculture. Though the green revolution is acknowledged to have prevented widespread starvation and introduced some necessary modernisation into rural communities, it was also the beginning of a continuing system of monoculture in India, where farmers were pushed to abandon native varieties and instead plant a few high-yielding wheat and rice crops in quick-turnaround cycles, burning the stubble in their fields in between. It also created a reliance on subsidised fertilisers and chemicals that, though costly and environmentally disastrous, lasts to this day. Soil in fertile states such as Punjab, once known as the breadbasket of India, has been stripped of its rich minerals, with watercourses running dry, rivers polluted with chemical run-off and farmers in a perpetual state of deep crisis and anger. Shiva’s suspicions about the chemical industry worsened further when, in the early 1990s, she was privy to some of the first multilateral discussions around agricultural biotechnology and plans by chemical companies to alter crop genes for commercial purposes. “There was a race on by companies to develop and patent these GM crops, but no one was stopping to ask: what will be the impact on the environment? How will they impact on diversity? What will this cost the farmers? They only wanted to win the race and control all the world’s seeds. To me, it all seemed so wrong,” says Shiva. In 1991, five years before the first genetically modified (GM) crops had been planted, she founded Navdanya, meaning “nine seeds”, an initiative to save India’s native seeds and spread their use among farmers. Eight years later, she took the chemical monolith Monsanto, the world’s largest producer of seeds, to the supreme court for bringing its GM cotton into India without permission. Monsanto became notorious in the 1960s for producing the herbicide Agent Orange for the US military during the Vietnam war, and subsequently led the development of GM crops in the 1990s. It moved quickly to penetrate the international market with its privatised seeds, particularly in developing, predominantly agricultural countries. The company, which was bought in 2018 by the German pharmaceutical and biotech company Bayer, became embroiled in legal action. In 2020 it announced a $11bn (£8.7bn) payout to settle claims of links between its herbicide and cancer on behalf of almost 100,000 people but denied any wrongdoing. In 2016, dozens of civil society groups staged a “people’s tribunal” in The Hague, finding Monsanto guilty of human rights violations and developing an unsustainable system of farming. Shiva says taking Monsanto to court felt like going up against a mafia and alleges that many attempts were made to threaten and pressure her into not filing the case. ‘This industrialised globalised system of food is destroying soil, destroying water and generating greenhouse gases.’ Shiva in Barcelona in 2007, where she received the Right Livelihood award, also known as the Alternative Nobel prize. Photograph: Gustau Nacarino/Reuters Monsanto finally got permission to bring GM cotton to India in 2002, but Shiva has kept up her fight against chemical multinationals, which Shiva refers to as the “poison cartel”. Currently more than 60% of the world’s commercial seeds are sold by just four companies, which have led the push to patent seeds, orchestrated a global monopoly of certain GM crops such as cotton and soya and sued hundreds of small-scale farmers for saving seeds from commercial crops. “We have taken on these giants when they said ‘we’ve invented rice, we’ve invented wheat’, and we have won,” she says. She remains adamant that GM crops have failed. But though the legacy of GM pest-resistant cotton in India is complex and has increased pesticide use, not all would agree that the issue is black and white. Indeed, her outspoken and often intransigent positions on GM organisms and globalisation have earned her many critics and powerful enemies. She has been accused of exaggerating the dangers of GM and simplifying facts around the direct correlation between farmers’ suicides and genetically modified crops, and been called an enemy of progress for her rhetoric against globalisation, given the threats facing the world. As the global population has ballooned to 8 billion people, and the climate crisis throws agriculture into disarray, even some prominent environmentalists have shifted their positions and have argued that GM crops can underpin food security. Countries including the UK, which had imposed strict laws around GM foods, are now pushing for more gene editing of crops and animals. Last year India approved the release of a new GM mustard seed. Shiva is scathing of this renewed push for GM organisms, arguing that much of the gene- editing process is still “dangerously unpredictable” and calling it “ignorance” to think climate-adapted crops can only come from industrial labs. “Farmers have already bred thousands of climate-resilient and salt-tolerant seeds; they weren’t the invention of a few big companies, no matter what patents they claim,” she says. For Shiva, the global crisis facing agriculture will not be solved by the “poison cartel” nor a continuation of fossil fuel-guzzling, industrialised farming, but instead a return to local, small-scale farming no longer reliant on agrochemicals. “Globally, the subsidies are $400bn a year to make an unviable agriculture system work,” she says. “This industrialised globalised system of food is destroying soil, it is destroying water and it is generating 30% of our greenhouse gases. If we want to fix this, we’ve got to shift from industrial to ecological farming.” Nonetheless, while her crusade against the might of chemical corporations will continue, Shiva considers her most important work to be her travels through India’s villages, collecting and saving seeds – including 4,000 varieties of rice – setting up more than 100 seed banks, and helping farmers return to organic methods. “My proudest work is listening to the seed and her creativity,” she says. “I’m proud of the fact that a lie is a lie is a lie, no matter how big the power that tells the lie. And I’m proud that I’ve never ever hesitated in speaking the truth.” This article was amended on 28 April 2023. A previous version incorrectly stated that Vandana Shiva had no children; she has a son. Vandana Shiva’s latest book, Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements, is published by Chelsea Green. Shiva will speak at the Extinction or Regeneration conference at the QEII Centre, London, on 11-12 May Module 2 Hunger I. Ending Hunger Now -Josette Sheeran Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN's World Food Program, talks about why, in a world with enough food for everyone, people still go hungry, still die of starvation, still use food as a weapon of war. Her vision: "Food is one issue that cannot be solved person by person. We have to stand together." Transcript Well after many years working in trade and economics, four years ago, I found myself working on the front lines of human vulnerability. And I found myself in the places where people are fighting every day to survive and can't even obtain a meal. This red cup comes from Rwanda from a child named Fabian. And I carry this around as a symbol, really, of the challenge and also the hope. Because one cup of food a day changes Fabian's life completely. But what I'd like to talk about today is the fact that this morning, about a billion people on Earth -- or one out of every seven -- woke up and didn't even know how to fill this cup. One out of every seven people. 00:55 First, I'll ask you: Why should you care? Why should we care? For most people, if they think about hunger, they don't have to go far back on their own family history -- maybe in their own lives, or their parents' lives, or their grandparents' lives -- to remember an experience of hunger. I rarely find an audience where people can go back very far without that experience. Some are driven by compassion, feel it's perhaps one of the fundamental acts of humanity. As Gandhi said, "To a hungry man, a piece of bread is the face of God." Others worry about peace and security, stability in the world. We saw the food riots in 2008, after what I call the silent tsunami of hunger swept the globe when food prices doubled overnight. The destabilizing effects of hunger are known throughout human history. One of the most fundamental acts of civilization is to ensure people can get enough food. 01:55 Others think about Malthusian nightmares. Will we be able to feed a population that will be nine billion in just a few decades? This is not a negotiable thing, hunger. People have to eat. There's going to be a lot of people. This is jobs and opportunity all the way up and down the value chain. But I actually came to this issue in a different way. This is a picture of me and my three children. In 1987, I was a new mother with my first child and was holding her and feeding her when an image very similar to this came on the television. And this was yet another famine in Ethiopia. One two years earlier had killed more than a million people. But it never struck me as it did that moment, because on that image was a woman trying to nurse her baby, and she had no milk to nurse. And the baby's cry really penetrated me, as a mother. And I thought, there's nothing more haunting than the cry of a child that cannot be returned with food -- the most fundamental expectation of every human being. And it was at that moment that I just was filled with the challenge and the outrage that actually we know how to fix this problem. 03:22 This isn't one of those rare diseases that we don't have the solution for. We know how to fix hunger. A hundred years ago, we didn't. We actually have the technology and systems. And I was just struck that this is out of place. At our time in history, these images are out of place. Well guess what? This is last week in northern Kenya. Yet again, the face of starvation at large scale with more than nine million people wondering if they can make it to the next day. In fact, what we know now is that every 10 seconds we lose a child to hunger. This is more than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. And we know that the issue is not just production of food. 04:20 One of my mentors in life was Norman Borlaug, my hero. But today I'm going to talk about access to food, because actually this year and last year and during the 2008 food crisis, there was enough food on Earth for everyone to have 2,700 kilocalories. So why is it that we have a billion people who can't find food? And I also want to talk about what I call our new burden of knowledge. In 2008, Lancet compiled all the research and put forward the compelling evidence that if a child in its first thousand days -- from conception to two years old -- does not have adequate nutrition, the damage is irreversible. Their brains and bodies will be stunted. And here you see a brain scan of two children -- one who had adequate nutrition, another, neglected and who was deeply malnourished. And we can see brain volumes up to 40 percent less in these children. And in this slide you see the neurons and the synapses of the brain don't form. And what we know now is this has huge impact on economies, which I'll talk about later. But also the earning potential of these children is cut in half in their lifetime due to the stunting that happens in early years. 05:49 So this burden of knowledge drives me. Because actually we know how to fix it very simply. And yet, in many places, a third of the children, by the time they're three already are facing a life of hardship due to this. I'd like to talk about some of the things I've seen on the front lines of hunger, some of the things I've learned in bringing my economic and trade knowledge and my experience in the private sector. I'd like to talk about where the gap of knowledge is. 06:25 Well first, I'd like to talk about the oldest nutritional method on Earth, breastfeeding. You may be surprised to know that a child could be saved every 22 seconds if there was breastfeeding in the first six months of life. But in Niger, for example, less than seven percent of the children are breastfed for the first six months of life, exclusively. In Mauritania, less than three percent. This is something that can be transformed with knowledge. This message, this word, can come out that this is not an old-fashioned way of doing business; it's a brilliant way of saving your child's life. And so today we focus on not just passing out food, but making sure the mothers have enough enrichment, and teaching them about breastfeeding. 07:17 The second thing I'd like to talk about: If you were living in a remote village somewhere, your child was limp, and you were in a drought, or you were in floods, or you were in a situation where there wasn't adequate diversity of diet, what would you do? Do you think you could go to the store and get a choice of power bars, like we can, and pick the right one to match? Well I find parents out on the front lines very aware their children are going down for the count. And I go to those shops, if there are any, or out to the fields to see what they can get, and they cannot obtain the nutrition. Even if they know what they need to do, it's not available. 07:56 And I'm very excited about this, because one thing we're working on is transforming the technologies that are very available in the food industry to be available for traditional crops. And this is made with chickpeas, dried milk and a host of vitamins, matched to exactly what the brain needs. It costs 17 cents for us to produce this as, what I call, food for humanity. We did this with food technologists in India and Pakistan -- really about three of them. But this is transforming 99 percent of the kids who get this. One package, 17 cents a day -- their malnutrition is overcome. So I am convinced that if we can unlock the technologies that are commonplace in the richer world to be able to transform foods. And this is climate-proof. It doesn't need to be refrigerated, it doesn't need water, which is often lacking. And these types of technologies, I see, have the potential to transform the face of hunger and nutrition, malnutrition out on the front lines. 09:06 The next thing I want to talk about is school feeding. Eighty percent of the people in the world have no food safety net. When disaster strikes -- the economy gets blown, people lose a job, floods, war, conflict, bad governance, all of those things -- there is nothing to fall back on. And usually the institutions -- churches, temples, other things -- do not have the resources to provide a safety net. What we have found working with the World Bank is that the poor man's safety net, the best investment, is school feeding. And if you fill the cup with local agriculture from small farmers, you have a transformative effect. Many kids in the world can't go to school because they have to go beg and find a meal. But when that food is there, it's transformative. It costs less than 25 cents a day to change a kid's life. 09:57 But what is most amazing is the effect on girls. In countries where girls don't go to school and you offer a meal to girls in school, we see enrollment rates about 50 percent girls and boys. We see a transformation in attendance by girls. And there was no argument, because it's incentive. Families need the help. And we find that if we keep girls in school later, they'll stay in school until they're 16, and won't get married if there's food in school. Or if they get an extra ration of food at the end of the week -- it costs about 50 cents -- will keep a girl in school, and they'll give birth to a healthier child, because the malnutrition is sent generation to generation. 10:43 We know that there's boom and bust cycles of hunger. We know this. Right now on the Horn of Africa, we've been through this before. So is this a hopeless cause? Absolutely not. I'd like to talk about what I call our warehouses for hope. Cameroon, northern Cameroon, boom and bust cycles of hunger every year for decades. Food aid coming in every year when people are starving during the lean seasons. Well two years ago, we decided, let's transform the model of fighting hunger, and instead of giving out the food aid, we put it into food banks. And we said, listen, during the lean season, take the food out. You manage, the village manages these warehouses. And during harvest, put it back with interest, food interest. So add in five percent, 10 percent more food. For the past two years, 500 of these villages where these are have not needed any food aid -- they're self-sufficient. And the food banks are growing. And they're starting school feeding programs for their children by the people in the village. But they've never had the ability to build even the basic infrastructure or the resources. I love this idea that came from the village level: three keys to unlock that warehouse. Food is gold there. And simple ideas can transform the face, not of small areas, of big areas of the world. 12:08 I'd like to talk about what I call digital food. Technology is transforming the face of food vulnerability in places where you see classic famine. Amartya Sen won his Nobel Prize for saying, "Guess what, famines happen in the presence of food because people have no ability to buy it." We certainly saw that in 2008. We're seeing that now in the Horn of Africa where food prices are up 240 percent in some areas over last year. Food can be there and people can't buy it. 12:39 Well this picture -- I was in Hebron in a small shop, this shop, where instead of bringing in food, we provide digital food, a card. It says "bon appetit" in Arabic. And the women can go in and swipe and get nine food items. They have to be nutritious, and they have to be locally produced. And what's happened in the past year alone is the dairy industry -- where this card's used for milk and yogurt and eggs and hummus -- the dairy industry has gone up 30 percent. The shopkeepers are hiring more people. It is a win-win-win situation that starts the food economy moving. We now deliver food in over 30 countries over cell phones, transforming even the presence of refugees in countries, and other ways. 13:32 Perhaps most exciting to me is an idea that Bill Gates, Howard Buffett and others have supported boldly, which is to ask the question: What if, instead of looking at the hungry as victims -- and most of them are small farmers who cannot raise enough food or sell food to even support their own families -- what if we view them as the solution, as the value chain to fight hunger? What if from the women in Africa who cannot sell any food -- there's no roads, there's no warehouses, there's not even a tarp to pick the food up with -- what if we give the enabling environment for them to provide the food to feed the hungry children elsewhere? And Purchasing for Progress today is in 21 countries. And guess what? In virtually every case, when poor farmers are given a guaranteed market -- if you say, "We will buy 300 metric tons of this. We'll pick it up. We'll make sure it's stored properly." -- their yields have gone up two-, three-, fourfold and they figure it out, because it's the first guaranteed opportunity they've had in their life. And we're seeing people transform their lives. Today, food aid, our food aid -- huge engine -- 80 percent of it is bought in the developing world. Total transformation that can actually transform the very lives that need the food. 14:56 Now you'd ask, can this be done at scale? These are great ideas, village-level ideas. Well I'd like to talk about Brazil, because I've taken a journey to Brazil over the past couple of years, when I read that Brazil was defeating hunger faster than any nation on Earth right now. And what I've found is, rather than investing their money in food subsidies and other things, they invested in a school feeding program. And they require that a third of that food come from the smallest farmers who would have no opportunity. And they're doing this at huge scale after President Lula declared his goal of ensuring everyone had three meals a day. And this zero hunger program costs.5 percent of GDP and has lifted many millions of people out of hunger and poverty. It is transforming the face of hunger in Brazil, and it's at scale, and it's creating opportunities. I've gone out there; I've met with the small farmers who have built their livelihoods on the opportunity and platform provided by this. 16:02 Now if we look at the economic imperative here, this isn't just about compassion. The fact is studies show that the cost of malnutrition and hunger -- the cost to society, the burden it has to bear -- is on average six percent, and in some countries up to 11 percent, of GDP a year. And if you look at the 36 countries with the highest burden of malnutrition, that's 260 billion lost from a productive economy every year. Well, the World Bank estimates it would take about 10 billion dollars -- 10.3 -- to address malnutrition in those countries. You look at the cost-benefit analysis, and my dream is to take this issue, not just from the compassion argument, but to the finance ministers of the world, and say we cannot afford to not invest in the access to adequate, affordable nutrition for all of humanity. 17:01 The amazing thing I've found is nothing can change on a big scale without the determination of a leader. When a leader says, "Not under my watch," everything begins to change. And the world can come in with enabling environments and opportunities to do this. And the fact that France has put food at the center of the G20 is really important. Because food is one issue that cannot be solved person by person, nation by nation. We have to stand together. And we're seeing nations in Africa. WFP's been able to leave 30 nations because they have transformed the face of hunger in their nations. 17:41 What I would like to offer here is a challenge. I believe we're living at a time in human history where it's just simply unacceptable that children wake up and don't know where to find a cup of food. Not only that, transforming hunger is an opportunity, but I think we have to change our mindsets. I am so honored to be here with some of the world's top innovators and thinkers. And I would like you to join with all of humanity to draw a line in the sand and say, "No more. No more are we going to accept this." And we want to tell our grandchildren that there was a terrible time in history where up to a third of the children had brains and bodies that were stunted, but that exists no more. 18:31 Thank you. 18:33 (Applause) II. Hunger Summit Poster Module 3 Recipes I. Wizened Lady Of The Oak Has October Ways wily wizened lady of the oak has October ways Stop if you must, but do not eat her craze. Her pumpkin peach pies will put you into a daze. Sounds perfect! Said my ghostly cousin Sir Haze. He got the recipe, but could never make it her ways. I think she left out ingredients said my Grandma Mays. We should know, because she does it to others said Auntie Maize. wonderful wizened lady of the oak has October ways. II. Novel eating: new recipes from your favourite fiction Ever tucked in to a Narnian midnight feast, or dreamt of feasting on sardines and ginger beer with the Famous Five? Here, in an excerpt from the new Little Library Cookbook, are four recipes straight from the pages of your favourite novels Ihave always been a highly suggestible, hungry reader. When discovering a new book, or revisiting an old favourite, my mind wanders, imagining what food the characters are enjoying would taste like. A passing mention of a ripe summer strawberry, a fragrant roast chicken or a warming mug of hot chocolate sends me straight to the kitchen, book still in hand. When I wasn’t in the kitchen, my childhood was spent in books. On weekends, my dad would push me out of our front door towards the park, encouraging me to run around in the fresh air until dusk. Little did he know that I always had a book tucked into my bike shorts, and would instead hide under a tree somewhere, losing myself in Jane Austen’s Regency England, Enid Blyton’s seaside Devon or Harper Lee’s Depression-era Alabama. My childhood was idyllic, but I spent much of it in parallel fictional worlds. As I grew up and then moved away from Australia, the books I had read as a child became imbued with a strong sense of nostalgia. I found that I could often remember exactly where I was when I had read each book for the first time. Far away from home, these memories provided real comfort. I discovered that the passages utmost in my memory were often food- related. And so, as well as reading them, I started cooking from them too. As I started writing about these literary/culinary links, people began to get in touch, telling me of their favourite fictional food memories. So many of us seemed to have a shared childhood: time spent dreaming of eating sardines and drinking ginger beer on Kirrin Island with the Famous Five; feeling jealous of Bruce and his infamous chocolate cake in Matilda; and wondering what on earth Dr Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham might taste like. It is not something we grow out of either. We imagine the dripping crumpets at Manderley in Rebecca, and find our mouths watering at the thought of the perfect steak in The End of the Affair. All the titles I have featured in my book are ones that I have read, and are part of my story. Books that I, as the librarian, would press into your hands with a glowing endorsement. BREAKFAST On the way I found an open café and ate a breakfast of rice and miso soup, pickled vegetables and fried eggs. Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami This breakfast is a lovely one to wake up to. Bright, sharp and salty: it gives me a boost on days when I have lots to achieve. A breakfast of rice and a fried egg, inspired by Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood. Photograph: Lean Timms/Head of Zeus Miso soup Serves 4 2 pieces of konbu seaweed 750ml water 2 tbsp white miso paste A pinch of salt 100g silken tofu, cut into small cubes 1 Put the seaweed and water in a saucepan, and put over a very low heat, stirring occasionally. As the water boils, pull out the seaweed. 2 Allow the stock to boil for 2 minutes, then turn off the heat. Spoon in the miso and stir until it has dissolved. Taste and season with a little salt. 3 Add the diced tofu to the hot stock. Serve immediately. Rice, pickles, egg Serves 4 For the rice 100g sushi rice 125ml cold water 2 tbsp rice vinegar 1 tsp mirin 1 tsp caster sugar For the pickles 1 tbsp flaky salt 1 tbsp caster sugar White pepper 150ml rice vinegar 1 cucumber 10 radishes For the fried egg 2 tbsp sesame oil 4 eggs 1 Wash the rice 4 times in cold water. Drain well, then pour 125ml water over the rice. Let it sit for 30 minutes. 2 Meanwhile, make the pickle, slice the vegetables into any thickness you fancy: the thinner they are, the more they will pickle. I like to slice the cucumber with a mandoline, so they pick up the pickle, and the radishes into quarters, so they retain most of their crunch. 3 Mix the salt, caster sugar, white pepper and vinegar together until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Split between two bowls. Put the cucumber in one and the radishes in the other. Set aside. 4 Bring the rice to the boil, then slowly simmer for 10 minutes, with the lid on, until the water dips below the rice. LUNCH Desdemona went up and down the line, adding walnuts, butter, honey, spinach, cheese, adding more layers of dough, then more butter, before forging the assembled concoctions in the oven. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides Shop-bought filo turns this pie from a full-day challenge into a midweek supper or a simple weekend lunch. In Middlesex, Desdemona lays her pastry out all over the house, but she is cooking in the 1920s, before Greek pastry was common in supermarkets. If using shop- bought, keep it covered for as long as possible, or it will dry out faster than you can fill it, and it will end up all over your carpet, rather than round your spinach. Spankopita, inspired by Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel Middlesex. Photograph: Lean Timms/House of Zeus Spanakopita Serves 4 1 brown onion, finely chopped 1 tbsp flavourless oil 1kg frozen spinach 1 tbsp chopped dill 3 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley 1 egg 100g feta cheese Nutmeg, freshly grated Salt and black pepper 100g butter 10 sheets filo pastry Sesame seeds, to decorate 1 Set your oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Fry the onion in a large saucepan in the oil until translucent. Tip in the spinach, stirring constantly while it defrosts. Cook over a relatively high heat to try to encourage some of the water to evaporate. 2 Tip the spinach and onion into a sieve. Squeeze out as much of the water as you can. The more you can remove here, the crisper your pastry will be. Leave to cool. 3 Add the chopped herbs and egg, crumble in the feta, then add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. 4 Melt the butter in a saucepan. Lay 2 sheets of filo on your work surface, with their longest edges parallel to you, and overlapping by 2cm. Brush generously with butter. Lay two more sheets on top, butter again. Repeat until all the filo is used up. Lay a long line of filling about 5cm from the long edge of pastry closest to you. Roll the pastry into a long sausage. Coil into a spiral. Load the filo layers thus. Then roll it up. Then curl it into a spiral. Photograph: Lean Timms/House of Zeus 5 Transfer the spanakopita to a lined baking sheet, brush generously with butter, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. DINNER Is it possible to fall in love over a dish of onions?... I said, “It’s a good steak,” and heard, like poetry, her reply: “It’s the best I’ve ever eaten.” The End of the Affair, Graham Greene This is, in my opinion at least, the sexiest dish in my book. I wholeheartedly recommend serving it to someone you fancy. And, I guarantee you, it is possible to fall in love over these onions. Sarah’s thoughts on the steak in The End of the Affair are exactly the response you are aiming for, so keep it simple, and don’t forget to let it rest. Fall in love with this dish of steak and onions. Photograph: Lean Timms/House of Zeus Steak and onions Serves 2 2 rump steaks Salt and black pepper Olive oil For the onions 16 small, round shallots 50g butter 30 sprigs thyme Salt and black pepper 1 Set your oven to 180C/350F/gas 4. Remove the steaks from the fridge to bring them to room temperature. 2 Top and tail your shallots and peel off the outer layer of skin. Arrange them with one of the cut sides up in a small ovenproof dish. Put a small pat of butter on each one, then add a couple of sprigs of thyme and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Transfer the dish to the oven for 50 minutes, until golden and soft. 3 In the last 15 minutes of the onion cooking time, heat a griddle pan or heavy frying pan until water evaporates immediately when flicked on to it. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on one side of the steaks and put them, seasoning-side down, into the pan. 4 Flip each steak every 30 seconds or so. I’m loath to give cooking times here, because it is so dependent on the thickness of your steak. I use the hand test I was taught at school instead. Gently touch your forefinger to your thumb (don’t pinch, just touch). Prod the heel of your thumb with a finger from your other hand, and then prod your steak. You’re looking for a similar tenderness in a rare cooked steak. Once it reaches this tenderness, take it off the heat immediately. If you want your steak cooked differently, it’s: medium rare – middle finger; medium – ring finger; well done – little finger. 5 Once your steaks are cooked to your liking, wrap them in foil and leave to rest for 5 minutes, then slice the steak into strips, put on your plate, and season with salt, pepper and a little drizzle of olive oil. Serve with the dish of onions. MIDNIGHT FEAST And when they had finished the fish, Mrs Beaver brought, unexpectedly, out of the oven, a great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll, steaming hot... The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis I am unable to stay inside when snow starts. I frolic. But as much as I love being outside in it, that first hour back inside again – the long bath, the clean, warm socks, the hot meal – is just as wonderful. This marmalade roll, served to the Pevensie children by the beavers as the snow lies thick on the ground under an ink-black sky, is just the ticket. Custard is the ideal accompaniment to marmalade roll. A ‘great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll, steaming hot’ – just like Mrs Beaver’s. Photograph: Lean Timms/House of Zeus Marmalade roll Serves 6 250g plain/all-purpose flour 50g light brown sugar 1 tsp baking powder 40g butter 40g vegetable suet 60g soured cream 60ml milk 1 egg 450g marmalade 25ml whiskey For the custard 300ml milk 100ml double cream 1 vanilla pod 4 egg yolks 40g caster sugar 1 Set the oven to 190C/375F/gas 5. Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Rub the butter and suet into the mixture with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. 2 Whisk the soured cream, milk and egg together in a cup, then tip the liquids into the dry ingredients. Mix everything together with a fork until it comes together in a dough. Generously flour the work surface and tip the dough out. Push it out into a rough rectangle, around 18x30cm in size and 15mm thick. 3 Spoon ⅔ of the marmalade on to the dough, spreading it over the whole surface. If your marmalade is hard set and not very spreadable, warm it over a low heat to melt a little. 4 Using a spatula, roll the dough up from the short end into a scroll. Pinch the ends together, and roll tightly in greaseproof paper. Tie the ends with string, or twist them and tuck them under the marmalade roll. Place a rack in the base of an oven dish, and place the roll on top. Transfer to the oven and, before you close the door, tip a little boiling water into the bottom of the dish, being careful to ensure that the water does not touch the roll. Bake for 1 hour, until a skewer inserted into the roll comes out with no bits of uncooked dough clinging to it. 5 To make the custard, pour the milk and cream into a saucepan with the split vanilla pod. Place over a low heat until almost simmering, stirring occasionally to prevent the milk burning on the bottom. Remove the vanilla pod. 6 Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together. While still whisking, slowly pour the hot milk and cream on top. 7 Pour the custard back into the saucepan. Stir continuously over a very low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. If you’re not going to serve it immediately, cover the top with plastic wrap, pushing it down until it sits on the top of the custard, to prevent it from forming a skin. 8 Remove the roll from the oven. Put the rest of the marmalade and the whisky in a small saucepan and heat until liquid. Paint the top of the roll with the marmalade glaze and serve hot with the custard. III. Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss and family Recipes by Chantha Nguon How to Write a Recipe: The 4 Key Elements of a Great Cookbook Recipe by Melissa Drumm Cooking may be an art, but writing recipes that anyone can use? That’s a bit of a science. When writing a recipe, clarity is key. If your reader gets tripped up on your language, they won’t attempt the recipe at all—or worse, they’ll try it and get bad results. Don’t worry—clarity doesn’t preclude creativity. There are plenty of ways to showcase your style and personality in your recipes, as long as, at the end of the day, the language is clear and concise. Let’s walk through the essential pieces of any recipe: The title, the headnote, the ingredient list, and the recipe steps. Recipe Template 1. The Recipe Title Don’t underestimate the importance of a good title: It’s the first impression your readers will have of the recipe, and it’s likely what will determine whether or not they continue reading. Your title should be descriptive; make sure to mention the main ingredients and flavors. When in doubt, stick with something straightforward, like “Roast Chicken with Garlic and Rosemary” or “Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream.” A few carefully selected adjectives can give your recipe extra appeal, especially if they have a personal bent; think “Nana’s Famous Lemony Rice Pudding” or “Fluffy Dinner Rolls.” But be judicious: Adding too many adjectives can make your title long and cumbersome. If you’re writing a cookbook, you’ll also have layout limitations to contend with. Keeping the length of your titles fairly consistent will make for more aesthetically pleasing pages. Be sure to include the yield and/or serving size of the recipe just below the title. 2. Headnote A headnote is a short paragraph that precedes the recipe and acts as a sort of introduction. Think of the headnote as an opportunity to let your personality shine, both as a cook and as a person. Consider starting your headnote with a short anecdote. Tell the reader why you’re including this recipe in your book. For example: Did you eat something at a restaurant that inspired you to create this dish? Did your best friend make something like this for you when you needed cheering up? Have you been making this dessert since you were 14, perfecting it along the way? Those stories are what make your recipe different from anyone else’s—and what will draw your readers in. Next, offer any tips, tricks, or suggestions that will help your readers succeed when cooking. For example, you might mention that a French onion soup recipe requires broiler-safe crocks, or that your recipe for popovers can be made in a muffin tin instead of a popover pan. If your braised pork recipe calls for pork shoulder, this is your chance to fill the reader in on what to look for at the grocery store. Serving suggestions are good headnote fodder, too: If that beef stew is great with bread or egg noodles, say so. Putting this information in the headnote keeps your ingredient list and recipe steps clean and concise. 3. Ingredient List Now you’re getting to core of your recipe: the ingredient list. First, make sure every ingredient is on its own line. Units, such as tablespoons, cups, or ounces, should be fully written out, not abbreviated. Avoid writing two numbers in a row, as in the case of portion or package size; the second number should be in parentheses. For example: 1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes 4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets 2 (1-pound) pork tenderloins Your ingredients should be listed in the order they appear in the recipe steps. If you’re adding multiple ingredients at once, list those ingredients in descending volume order. If something is used twice in the recipe, it should be listed where it’s first used, followed by the word “divided” to give the reader a heads up. (Make sure to then indicate the amount used each time the divided ingredient appears in the recipe steps.) One exception: If a recipe contains two or more very distinct elements (e.g. turkey and gravy, chicken and potatoes, pie crust and filling), it’s easiest to break the ingredient list into sections and list all the ingredients used for each element under the appropriate header (even if they’ve been used before). Then repeat those headers in the recipe steps so the reader knows what goes where. The ingredient list is also where you’ll tell readers the basic preparation of each ingredient, such as “chopped,” “minced,” “sliced into 1-inch-thick slices,” or “peeled and quartered.” This is also where things can get tricky, since seemingly small differences in wording can really impact how a recipe turns out. Take this example: 1 cup walnuts, chopped vs. 1 cup chopped walnuts The first line, “1 cup walnuts, chopped” indicates that your reader should first measure 1 cup of walnuts, then chop them. The second line, “1 cup chopped walnuts,” indicates the opposite: The reader would chop the walnuts first, then measure out a cup of the chopped nuts. Since you’d be able to fit more chopped walnuts than whole walnuts in a one-cup measure, the amount of walnuts used could vary considerably—all because of the order in which your words are written. It’s also important to be specific. For example, “4 chicken breasts” is too vague; more information is helpful, as in “4 (6-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breasts.” Ambiguity is the death knell of a good recipe, so don’t leave any room for misinterpretation. Any ingredient prep that requires more than a few words of description should be left for the recipe steps (e.g. butterflying a chicken). 4. Recipe Steps When writing recipe steps, think concise and precise: Every sentence should be to the point and packed with information. Avoid extraneous adjectives or distracting parentheticals— these belong in the headnote. The biggest question here: Where do the breaks go? Where does step 1 end and step 2 begin? A good rule of thumb is that, when you start a new task, start a new step. For example, if you are instructing the reader to make a sauce for lasagna, making the sauce should be its own step—the instructions for layering the lasagna should be a different step. One caveat: Breaking your recipe into too many steps can make it seem intimidating, so try to combine simple tasks into one step. For example, if you are making cookies in which you instruct the reader to mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients in two different bowls, you can do so in a single step: “In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, combine melted butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.” The next step can then be about combining those two mixtures. Be sure to consider timing when deciding the order of your recipe steps, as well. Don’t tell the reader to preheat the oven at the moment the casserole is supposed to go in. Preheating takes time, so put it in step 1. You can also use words like “meanwhile” to give the reader a clue that, for instance, while the pasta is cooking, they can be making sauce. Short of an actual style guide, it’s difficult to capture all of the recipe step–writing rules in one place, since recipes can vary so much. But no matter what type of recipe you’re writing, there are a few things you should always keep in mind: Shortening Ingredient Names Since you’ve already provided detailed information about your ingredients in the ingredient list, it’s ok to shorten the ingredient names in the recipe steps. For example, you don’t need to say, “Cook boneless, skinless chicken breasts,” only, “Cook chicken.” One exception: If you’re using two types of the same ingredient, like granulated and brown sugar, you will need to include the appropriate descriptors. Vessel Types and Sizes At the first mention of a new vessel, be sure to specify the type and size (e.g. 13 x 9-inch glass baking dish, large saucepan, small microwave-safe bowl, 12-inch straight-sided sauté pan, standard muffin tin, etc.). Once you’ve given these details, there’s no need to repeat them later in the recipe; you can simply say “dish” or “pan.” Heat Level When cooking on the stove, always indicate the heat level (e.g. high, medium-low, low). When the heat changes, it’s helpful to say “increase heat to high” or “decrease heat to medium-low,” which gives the reader a useful point of reference. Cooking Time Whenever possible, give both the approximate cooking time as well as a visual (or temperature-based) doneness cue. Different stoves and ovens inevitably vary a bit in temperature and efficiency, so merely saying, “Cook onions over medium heat for 5 minutes” might yield different results for different cooks. Instead, you might say, “Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until onion is softened and beginning to brown,” which ensures that anyone making the recipe ends up with the same result. For meat, giving the doneness temperature is the most foolproof way to guarantee success: “Cook chicken breasts over medium-high heat for 10-12 minutes, until internal temperature registers 165 degrees.” Serving Instructions Always end the recipe with basic serving instructions. If the dish should be eaten right away, you may want to say, “Serve immediately,” but if it needs to be completely cool, say, “Allow to cool completely, about 2 hours, before serving.” If it’s ok to serve something either hot or at room temperature, mention that too. Don’t forget about plating instructions, but keep them simple, as in “Sprinkle with parsley and serve.” You don’t need to go into great detail about how to swoop sauce across plates or how to position sliced steak atop a bed of greens. Writing a Cookbook When writing a cookbook, consistency is key. The best way to ensure this is to write yourself a style guide, which should include info on how to call for certain ingredients, whether your recipe steps should include articles (e.g. a or the), appropriate abbreviations, etc. Never assume that your reader will be able to imply or extrapolate meaning. Give as much information as you think your readers will need without going overboard. The best way to ensure your recipe is flawless is to have someone else make it. A friend or family member will be able to point out omissions, points of confusion, and other small errors you may have missed. With practice, writing great recipes will become second nature. Module IV Food Blogs/Vlogs I. How to Become a Food Writer Becoming a food writer isn’t just about exuding the robust writing chops to craft an article for a culinary magazine. Many food writers usually live and breathe the sensorial world of food—from spending countless hours in the kitchen testing vibrant bolognese sauces to dreaming of the next original recipe to hit a food blog. If you’ve ever thought about entering the colorful profession of food writing, you’re in the right place. Let’s discuss some of the steps you can take to become a food writer and what this occupation may entail. What Is Food Writing? In its simplest form, food writing is a multi-faceted subgenre of writing that usually involves meaningful and illustrative storytelling. Food writing isn’t bland or “stoic” in tone or vocabulary—it’s usually deliciously descriptive and reflects the writer’s unique passion for culinary arts. There are also several diverse types of culinary writing to explore. TYPES OF FOOD WRITING Restaurant reviews: Rate and critique a restaurant based on its service, products, and prices Food articles: Write long-form article content for food publications on any given culinary topic or trend Food memoirs: Publish prose-form historical essays about a specific dish or cuisine for a magazine or newspaper Blog & recipe writing: Describe how to prepare a specific type of recipe, from inception to plating, for a personal blog, website, or publication Cookbook writing: Cultivate a series of original recipes and stories for readers to devour How to Become a Food Writer: Step-by-Step Like several other culinary professions, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all guide to becoming a food writer. However, there are several steps you can take to begin your journey in this field! 1. Dive into Culinary Education Chances are, if you’re an intrinsically great writer with a knack for all things grammar, you may feel confident to dive right in—especially if you exude an affinity for culinary arts. But there are ways you can uplevel your writing skills through education. For example, some food writers might choose to pursue a Journalism or Communications degree from a four-year university to bolster their writing abilities. Although it’s not a requirement to obtain a specific degree to become a food writer, this type of knowledge could enhance your pieces of work. Even though food writing isn’t quite as technical as medical writing per se, you’ll probably want to know relevant cooking skills, techniques, and terminology so that you can be viewed as an expert in your field. That said, many food writers end up enrolling in culinary school to gain this essential foundation. Students enrolled in Escoffier’s Food Entrepreneurship program can explore a foundational cooking curriculum and may take a deep dive into food business marketing, which could partially focus on food writing for blogs. “My education with Escoffier has really given me a good foundation. It has filled a resume gap; it’s filled a professional gap and a skills gap. It has helped me in all aspects of my culinary career.”* LANCE MCWHORTER, EXECUTIVE CHEF/OWNER, THE PLAID RABBIT SOCIAL CLUB & SPEAKEASY AT CULTURE ETX; FOOD NETWORK “CHOPPED” CONTESTANT; ONLINE CULINARY ARTS GRADUATE When it comes time to pitch article ideas to a publication or food company, coming to the table with this type of background could set you apart from other food writers. 2. Determine Your Niche If you’re first starting out in food writing, you may want to consider keeping your subject matter broad, especially if you don’t have writing samples yet. However, it doesn’t hurt to think about determining your exact niche. If you can declare your food writing expertise, companies might actively pursue you for particular writing projects, articles, etc. TYPES OF FOOD WRITING NICHES Agriculture: Discuss agricultural trends and how they impact the quality of food we consume Sustainable culinary practices: Cover topics like how to source fresh, local ingredients through regenerative farming Wine & drink: Write about trending wine varieties around the globe Culinary travels: Capture stories about unique culinary destinations and must-try dishes Culinary techniques: Chat about progressive culinary trends and techniques that can amplify dishes Kitchen gadgets: Cover top kitchen gadgets to try in the kitchen Food startups: Research up-and-coming companies that push culinary innovation and boundaries Recipe creation: Create and test original recipe content  Health & nutrition: Unveil nutritious food choices that impact how populations live 3. Start a Website As a food writer, chances are, you might be an independent contractor or you could write in- house for a food company. Regardless of your place of employment, it’s important to build your personal brand through a website. Here, you can share a bit about your background and food writing niche. You’ll also want to add a few more important components to your site, which will likely serve as a tool for future client prospects. Begin Food Blogging If a future brand contacts you to write a batch of monthly blog posts, they’ll want to get a sense of your writing style and likely check to see if you have a blog section on your site. For new food writers who might not have a plethora of writing samples, starting a blog could be a great jumping-off point. You’ll want to consider making this a prominent page on your website and develop some sort of consistent blog schedule. At the same time, you might want to flesh out your content categories that align with your food writing niche. Create a Digital Portfolio If you’re a more experienced food writer, you’ll likely have plenty of quality writing samples under your belt. Unless you signed a non-disclosure agreement with a client or publication you wrote for, you should consider publishing these samples on your site. Simply create a portfolio section to upload your writing samples. If you can, link to the published work and write a short description detailing the scope and any relevant details pertaining to the project. 4. Pitch to Publications For many food writers, it might seem intimidating to pitch to a future client or publication. But as long as you have a website and a few high-quality samples, you can begin outreach right away. And yes, it’s perfectly normal to feel unsure about this process in the beginning, but it can get easier as you make pitching a routine a regular practice! When it comes to publications, it’s important to note that each one may stipulate unique submission instructions. For example, if you want to submit a cooking tip at Kitchn, you’ll need to prepare an outline of your kitchen tip, blog title, imagery, and more. Since each process might vary, consider starting a spreadsheet that outlines your prospects, their contact info, and additional pitching guidelines. Beginning this type of system from the start could help you remain organized. 5. Connect With Fellow Foodies As a food writer, honing your prospecting skills could quickly become your superpower and secret key to building more business. Along with cold outreach, one of the best ways to plant seeds for future projects is simply through networking with fellow foodies. Consider joining food-centric meetup groups or local culinary organizations to meet like-minded professionals. As an entrepreneur or freelancer, it never hurts to have industry folks in your corner who can advocate for you! And even though these connections might not generate opportunities immediately, they could help build a healthy referral stream of leads and enhance word-of- mouth marketing for your business. Your Next Step to Becoming a Food Writer If you’re passionate about culinary arts and enjoy the process of writing across different mediums, it could be worth looking into food writing jobs. Also, choosing to attend culinary school could help you understand industry terminology and skills that could inform your writing pieces. II. Instagram- Kerala Foodie Module V Food and Technology I. AI in the Food Industry: Case Studies, Challenges & Future Trends March 28, 2024 · 10 minutes Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in supply chains within different segments of the Food Industry, including transportation and logistics, production planning, quality control, and others has kicked off revolutionary transformations. Whether it is optimizing supply chains to reduce waste or adopting smart agriculture practices to improve yield, AI impacts efficiency, personalization and sustainability. The market size of AI in the food industry, including the beverages sector is set to cross USD 9.68 billion in 2024. It is growing at 38.30% CAGR and is expected to touch USD 48.99 billion by 2029. As per a recent study, AI can help reduce production costs by almost 20% in the agriculture sector! That’s definitely good news. By the way things are progressing, AI is and can further impact the industry in multiple ways. All for the good. Let’s find out more about this in this article. Overview of AI in the Food Industry 1. Food Production AI tools can drive advanced predictive analytics with precision forecasting for weather and crop yield predictions. Analyzing huge amounts of data can help monitor nutrient levels in the soil, and detect signs of pest infestation or diseases, resulting in healthier crops. Detection of nutritional constituents and allergens in food, optimizing routes and schedules of food delivery, and inventory management are some of the other ways AI is helping the food production industry. 2. Supply Chain Administration Supply chains are the backbone of the food industry. Artificial Intelligence in supply chain helps track products from harvest to distribution channels and manage inventories with greater accuracy. The technology also helps set better food standards surveillance, testing products at every level, and ensuring food hygiene setups in different operational scenarios. 3. Optimize Yield for Farmers AI is helping farmers detect pest infestations and plant diseases proactively. The technology also helps detect environmental conditions like temperature, humidity, soil fertility and nutritional properties. This is called smart farming. Data collected from drones, sensors, and satellites can be analyzed by farmers to save time, and costs related to field trials, food inspections, and more. 4. Food Retail In the food retail sector, AI has been helping reduce wastage as the tools can more accurately predict the demand for products. Predictive Analytics is one of the most powerful features of AI tools that help identify patterns and new trends much before they happen. 5. Enhance Food Safety & Quality AI is helping food companies become compliant and transparent. It is also bringing in an increased sense of accountability in the food supply chain. AI-enabled cameras can detect safety issues in case the staff on the shop floors are not wearing food protection gear or following the rules. Production is being tracked in real-time; therefore, issues related to food contamination and other safety issues are getting detected faster and effectively. Benefits of AI in the Food Industry’s Supply Chain and Logistics Waste Reduction Estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization point out that nearly one-third of food is wasted every year leaving millions starved and at least one in nine people undernourished. Almost 8% to 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions on the globe today are linked to unconsumed food. Food losses and waste mean economic losses amounting to almost $940 billion each year. Accurate demand forecasting, demand sensing, improved food storage practices and optimized supply chain management with the help of AI can make a difference when it comes to reducing waste, especially for perishable food products. Produce and Store the Right Product Mix One of the biggest challenges that AI helps tackle in the food industry is related to understanding consumer demands. AI powers predictive analytics where trends, preferences and purchasing behaviors are analyzed in-depth that help companies store the right product mix. This gives businesses the flexibility to adjust product offerings with optimized varieties and freshness. Improve Efficiency and Reduce Operational Costs AI in the food industry impacts efficiency and operational costs too. From predictive maintenance of equipment to optimizing delivery routes and reducing wastes, AI automation helps streamline production, minimizes downtime and enables precise resource allocation. Such processes lower energy consumption and boost profitability. Improve Inventory Management and Logistics In the context of inventory management and logistics handling in the food industry, AI offers tracking and forecasts demand in real-time that enables companies optimize stock levels. Using predictive analytics, businesses move away from overstocking or understocking, while ensuring timely delivery of fresh products. This boosts customer confidence and satisfaction levels while reducing wastes. Accurate Demand & Price Forecasts AI facilitates precision in demand and price forecasting with the help of historical data and market trends. Food companies, especially dealing in perishable products can adjust their production and drive efficient inventory management with AI. Besides, such companies can price their products competitively and take advantage of consumer behavior and market fluctuations. Reduced Emissions & Promotes Sustainability AI in the food industry contributes towards reducing emissions as supply chains get optimized and food waste gets minimized. With predictive analysis, crop yield increases, agriculture precision is achieved, and carbon footprint of companies reduces. Energy-efficient processing and distribution have minimal environmental impact. Make Supply Chains Resilient Real-time data analysis offers predictive insights of the market demands. AI can help identify potential disruptions and facilitate proactive adjustments, be it in sourcing, operations, or distribution. Supply chains become robust and stabilize even in the face of challenges. Case Studies of Successful AI Integration in Food Supply Chain Church Brothers Farms Church Brothers Farms, a family-owned vegetable business with a vast cultivation area of 40,000 acres, faced significant challenges due to product perishability, volatile market conditions and logistical issues, among others. Shipping 50 million cartons annually across the US, the company sought to optimize its supply chain to reduce waste and increase profitability. They turned to Throughput.ai for a solution, which leveraged historical data across 60 commodities and numerous products to enable accurate demand forecasting and supply chain optimization. Throughput.ai’s tool allowed for a transformation in the supply chain management of Church Brothers Farms by providing advanced forecasting and identifying optimal timelines, workflows, and routes for order fulfillment. This AI-driven approach helped the company minimize disruptions, reduce wastage, and adapt to fluctuating consumer tastes by implementing a make-to-order strategy instead of the traditional make-to-stock approach. This shift was supported by granular visibility into sales volumes, enabling the identification of best-sellers and underperforming products. The collaboration with Throughput.ai led to substantial improvements for Church Brothers Farms, including a 40% increase in short-term forecasting accuracy and a more efficient management of inventory and production capacity. By achieving the 5 R’s—having the right stock in the right quantity, at the right cost, time, and location—the company not only maximized profitability but also enhanced customer satisfaction through its optimized supply chain. A Fast-Growing Coffee Retail Chain A 10-year-old coffee retail company with ambitions to expand as a boutique chain focused on locally sourced, fair-trade and organic products made significant strides with the help of Throughput.ai. Specializing in a variety of coffee brews, fresh juices and smoothies, the company faced challenges related to inventory management such as pile-ups and wastage as well as inefficiencies in shipping and a need for better alignment of its menu with evolving market tastes. Throughput’s Supply Chain Intelligence software suite offered solutions that allowed the coffee chain to intelligently optimize its product offerings, sense near-term demand more accurately, and adjust its menu dynamically to enhance profit margins while minimizing waste. The tool provided comprehensive insights into inventory turnover, customer reorder frequencies and the performance of every premium SKU, including shipping costs and lead times. This enabled the chain to prioritize its products more effectively, using Throughput’s demand-value matrix based on demand sensitivity. As a result of the partnership with Throughput, the coffee chain achieved significant operational improvements, including a 15% reduction in inventory levels and a 5% increase in labor productivity. These advancements allowed the chain to adapt to market demands more dynamically, maintain fresher stock and avoid overstocking or shortages, ultimately, securing a competitive advantage. By gaining detailed visibility into SKU-level performance and optimizing its entire supply chain, the company could ensure timely availability of the right products, enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing resource wastage. Fast Food Companies Many fast food companies like Chipotle, McDonald’s and Yum Brands are using the power of artificial intelligence to revolutionize the industry.  Chipotle is using AI-driven cooking methods and robotics to make the kitchen more efficient and reduce food wastage. New-age technology helps enhance customer service with seamless ordering experience and analyze customer feedback to offer personalized dining experience. Yum Brands has already integrated artificial intelligence and related technologies into all its retail stores in the US. Other than chatbot systems, AI is helping each outlet predict demand, helping it reduce waste and manage its inventory more efficiently. Agriculture Companies We have already spoken about how Church Brothers have benefitted by using Throughput.ai’s platform. Another excellent example is that of Beyond Meat. The plant- based food company uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to make its meat alternatives more flavorsome and rich in texture. Using sensory data of customers and feedback of its users, the technology analyzes plant proteins at the molecular level, and the profiles of different ingredients to replicate the flavor, texture, and nutrition of animal meat. Consequently, the brand is able to offer sustainable and healthier dietary options to people who want to relish meat-like flavors and textures. Challenges and Considerations of AI in Food Industry Technical and Financial Barriers to AI Adoption Unlike big tech companies that have tons of voluminous data with them, players in the food industry are usually hesitant to try AI because they lack data. Not just that, customizing AI tools that are usually designed to handle large data quantities can be an expensive affair. Data Privacy and Security Concerns As food companies collect and analyze vast datasets of customers and operations, the risks of data breaches and unauthorized access increases. With the help of powerful AI tools, the issues related to cybersecurity can be addressed to a great extent. Need for Skilled Personnel to Manage AI Technologies Another common challenge for food businesses when implementing AI technologies is about hiring skilled professionals with a background in the industry. Substantial investment is required to educate, train and develop existing employees as well as onboard experts. Throughput AI’s Value-Added Proposition for AI in Food Industry Supply Chain 1. Predict Near-term Demand Throughput works with a data-centered approach and facilitates demand sensing not just for the long-term but near-term too. It benefits food producers and retailers, especially if you are in the perishable markets and constantly need to battle issues like seasonality changes, low shelf life, time sensitivity, lost chances of sales and earning revenues. 2. Work With Small Data Quantities The platform can robustly handle smaller amounts of real-time data, one of the biggest concerns for small players in the industry that do not have huge data with them for analysis. 3. User-Centric Features With user-friendly features, handling the platform and interpreting the results is quite convenient, even for users who are not experts in AI. 4. Flexible, Customizable and Scalable Since Throughput can offer tailored solutions to the food industry depending upon the unique needs of your business, you can always start small, experiment and explore use cases, and once it produces results, scale up to fit your operational range. Consequently, you can have a pocket-friendly approach with Throughput. Future Trends and Predictions of AI in the Food Industry New-age AI technologies in the food industry have started a revolution in how food is produced, processed and distributed. AI-powered tools in supply chains like Throughput are making accurate demand forecasting reducing overproduction and underproduction. Additionally, Artificial Intelligence has taken food safety to another level. Be it consumer health, detection of contaminants, or offering personalized nutrition plans, the scope of AI and futuristic technologies have unlocked potential that can make the industry sustainable, healthier and secure. Further, AI-driven logistics solutions will make route planning for deliveries precise and more effective as these solutions work with real-time traffic conditions, weather forecasts and delivery windows. Consequently, fuel usage will be more efficient and delivery times reduced. Combined with blockchain technology, AI is set to enhance product traceability from farm to table while ensuring compliance with food safety protocols. Conclusion Technological adoptions in the F&B industry are helping companies ace key areas of operation. For example, Throughput’s predictive analytics feature has transformed the supply chain landscape and the logistics workflow for many players, Church Brothers Farmer and the Retail Cafe chain being two great examples as we have seen here. AI in the food industry is not just about adding another layer of innovative technology to your operations. It has the potential to revolutionize your business, be it food safety, sustainability, improving operational efficiency, reducing waste, saving money, or strengthening customer relationships. Come, let’s choose to be a part of this agile and smart revolution that can transform your business in an environmentally conscious manner. II. TedEx Talk by Katherine James **************************************