Introducing … VERGE Food

有一些新的东西the menu. This fall, we’ll be debuting a new component to the VERGE conference ecosystem: VERGE Food, focusing on the rising interest in sustainable food systems.

Our annual VERGE conference, for the uninitiated, centers around the most dynamic and impactful markets that comprise the emerging clean economy. VERGE Food will join four other concurrent conferences: VERGE Energy, VERGE Transport, VERGE Circular and VERGE Carbon.

My colleague吉姆吉尔斯will be chairing the food program, part of边缘20Oct. 27-29 in San Jose, California. Giles is a journalist, analyst and media entrepreneur who focuses on carbon and food systems. In addition to the fall conference, Giles will edit a new weekly newsletter, Food Weekly, launching Feb. 13. You can sign uphere。

"We’re launching VERGE Food and Food Weekly because we’re in a crisis that is also an opportunity," Giles said. "We’ve built a food system that damages biodiversity and heats the planet, but we've also realized that this system is unsustainable. We have alternative approaches, and if we can scale these solutions we will create a new kind of food system — one that can feed a growing global population, protect our wild spaces, and help roll back climate change."

In producing the event, Giles will work with a growing corps of organizational partners and advisers, including the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, Civil Eats, the Climate Collaborative, ReFed, the Savory Institute, the Sustainable Food Trade Association, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the World Resources Institute and the Sustainable Food Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley. Look for more organizations to be added in the coming weeks.

Great paradox

食物和可持续发展的主题已经存在多年 - 数十必威体育2018年 - 但谈话达到了新的紧迫感，由于气候变化，砍伐森林和生物多样性丧失，食物垃圾和一系列其他紧迫的环境问题。他们一起清楚地提出了改造的必要性，如果没有重新改造，我们的食物系统的许多方面，包括如何以及何种食物，如何处理和运送到市场，如何消耗和如何转动浪费产生恢复生产使用。

今天有丰富的解决方案来解决这些挑战，在管道中有更多的挑战，部分归功于倾向于可持续食品系统的大型和小公司。

仅仅是环境挑战是令人生畏的，但也需要一系列平行的社会问题。每年约有500万儿童死亡，因为营养不佳，这意味着我们必须继续将家庭迁出贫困。然而，这将对食品系统引入新的压力。例如，在接下来的二十年中，世界将需要容纳30亿额外的中产阶级有抱负者，预计将从当前水平提高300％的人均食物消费量，一切都在吃更多的肉类，家禽和鱼类。

Thankfully, there are a wealth of solutions available today to address these challenges, with more in the pipeline, thanks in part to both large and small companies leaning into sustainable food systems. In the past, that meant primarily organic farming and food production. Today, the solution set is much broader. This will be a key focus of VERGE Food and Food Weekly.

The solution set includes technologies that are digitizing farming, including drones, low-cost sensors and satellite imaging. There’s also regenerative agriculture, a suite of low-tech farming practices that can help draw down carbon and increase soil fertility. And the two hot topics of the moment: alternative proteins, which are seeing a surge of interest from investors; and indoor farming systems, which promise to grow leafy greens and other produce using less water, space, energy — and no pesticides or herbicides.

It's not just technology that is driving change. According to a United Nations report, new institutions and their emerging standards are collaborating with business and producers to accelerate a shift toward sustainability, such as commercial standards, food safety standards and voluntary standards, including those involved in carbon markets, social accounting, organic and other environmental standards.

Suffice to say, there’s a full plate of topics to cover. We plan to serve up a steady diet of articles, analysis, research and conference sessions. We hope you’ll dig in.