Here's how you will eat in the future
What we're reading
Dear Tomato Lovers🍅,
In this issue we explore the future of food and its intersection with biodiversity. We report sad news from South America: two huge oil spills.
+ what our team is reading this month.
The Future of Food: Food Forests and Veggies
Agriculture has shaped our landscape for the last 12,000 years. In some countries we have completely wiped out real wilderness: Germany and Switzerland have completely managed forests.
So how do we feed the world whilst bringing back biodiversity too?
Most people don’t realize that a regenerative farm has higher yields than its industrial counterpart. Food forests bring back vital biodiversity that protect the farm from pests, whilst healthy soils combat diseases.
Our food system is rotten, but we know how to fix it. Regenerative farming practices bring back biodiversity whilst feeding the planet.
How you will eat in the future:
you will…
Eat animal products only once a week
Eat organic whenever possible
Replace dairy cravings with cashew cheeses
Use a brix refractometer to measure the nutritional value of produce*
Harvest herbs and seasonal veggies from your local community garden
Befriend your nearest farmer to receive a fresh box every week
Cook creative dishes where vegetables are the protagonists
*If we were all armed with a brix refractometer we would be able to read how many vitamins are in our veggies = how healthy your veggies are = how healthy the soil was = how the farm operates = how much CO2 it absorbs.
Did you know that 70% of the world’s birds are chicken?
It’s time to overhaul the system. It’s time to make it regenerative. And it starts with your plate.
Oil Spills & Accountability ⛽
The latest oil spills show yet again how shit the oil industry really is.
In Peru, Repsol’s oil spill was so bad it now covers 140km of Peru’s coast. Repsol lied about the initial spill and tried to blame it on the volcanic explosion in Tonga rather than on their ineptitude. It is now estimated that the spill was actually of over 10,000 barrels, up from their initial declaration of 0.16 barrel…
Thousands of birds were found dead, and the rare Humboldt penguin might not survive the tragedy.
The Peruvian government has now banned Repsol executives from fleeing the country to their safe havens. They should be tried for ecocide.
Meanwhile in Ecuador🇪🇨
Just a couple of days ago in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon, an OCP oil pipeline ruptured due to a rock fall after heavy rains, spilling 6,000 barrels of crude oil into the Coca river and across five acres of the Cayambe-Coca National Park.
Sadly, the OCP’s has a dark history. In April 2020 another OCP pipeline spilled 15,000 barrels into the Coca River—leaving thousands of indigenous people without safe food during the toughest times of the pandemic.
When will these companies be held accountable? When will their oil execs end up in jail? It’s time to make ecocide a crime.
What we’re reading📚
The Ministry for the Future — Kim Stanley Robinson
The Third Plate — Dan Barber
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test — Tom Wolfe