Feed
Is a local or global food system more sustainable? How big should a farm be? Debates about the future of food have become more polarised than ever. We will explore the evidence, worldviews, and values that people bring to global food system debates. Our show will be in conversation with those who are trying to transform the food system, as part of the ongoing work of Table, a collaboration between the University of Oxford, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), and Wageningen University. This podcast is operated by SLU. For more info, visit https://tabledebates.org/podcast/
Episodes
75 episodes since 2021
Animal welfare and ethics (w/ Tamsin Blaxter)
How do philosophers, animal welfare scientists, and farmers differ in their understanding of what a good future for farmed animals looks like? TABLE researcher Tamsin Blaxter discusses the complex relationships between humans and non-human anim...
September 05, 2024
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49:24
Valuing nature in our economies (w/ Adan Martinez Cruz)
Environmental economist Adan L. Martinez-Cruz (Senior Lecturer at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), argues that markets are a fundamental aspect of human society. He suggests that assigning a monetary value to natural resources ...
August 22, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 10
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28:46
There is no master metric for biodiversity (with Ville Lähde)
Philosopher and environmental researcher Ville Lähde (with the Finnish BIOS Research Unit) argues that we need to understand biodiversity differently at a fundamental level in order to preserve it. Biodiver...
August 15, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 9
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40:23
Nature knows best: Naturalness in the Ultra-Processed Foods Debate
The idea that more natural food – food which hasn’t been transformed by human and industrial intervention – is best for us is a powerful one. Psychologists have found a strong preference for that which is “natural”, even when people differ in w...
August 08, 2024
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53:44
Presenting "Less And Better?: Ep 1: Its Complicated"
It feels like one of the biggest questions of our time: what do we do about meat? Rather than choosing either extreme – business as usual, or ruling out meat altogether – some people suggest the best approach is one of ‘less and better meat’. B...
July 11, 2024
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34:11
Women Scientists from Global South on Food Security (Part 3)
500 scientists from 60 countries gathered at the 5th Global Food Security Conference in Leuven, Belgium. Instead of saying, "you had to be there," we bring you voices and reflections from the conference. Host Matthew Kessler recorded dozens of ...
June 27, 2024
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25:53
Economics of Food System Transformation (Part 2)
500 scientists from 60 countries gathered at the 5th Global Food Security Conference in Leuven, Belgium. Instead of saying, "you had to be there," we bring you voices and reflections from the conference. Host Matthew Kessler recorded dozens of ...
June 13, 2024
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40:20
Is Global Food Security a Solvable Puzzle? (Part 1)
500 scientists from 60 countries gathered at the 5th Global Food Security Conference in Leuven, Belgium. Instead of saying, "you had to be there," we bring you voices and reflections from the conference. Host Matthew Kessler recorded dozens of ...
May 30, 2024
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32:40
Is cultivated "meat" unnatural? Is meat today natural?
While many wonder about the technological hurdles preventing cultivated meat from entering commercial markets, fewer ask a more basic question: will people actually eat it, or will they find it too unnatural? In this episode, we're joined by Co...
May 09, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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36:03
Does CRISPR make our food unnatural?
If more and more gene-edited foods become common on our plates, is that a sign of a promising or worrying food future? With Dr. Lauren Crossland-Marr, food anthropologist and host of the podcast A CRISPR Bite, we unpack whether i...
May 02, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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29:38
What's a natural diet? (with Richard Tellström)
What influences the meals we enjoy today? Meal historian and cultural researcher Richard Tellström from Stockholm University suggests that the surrounding natural environments and ecosystems only play a minimal role. Instead, he argues that our...
April 25, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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18:43
What's a natural diet? (with Amy Styring)
Around 6000 years ago in Northwest Europe, our ancestors transitioned from hunter-gatherer societies to sedentary farming. How did their diets change during this time? The field of archaeological sciences and chemistry teamed up to shed new lig...
April 18, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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25:37
Can we eat enough white-tailed deer to restore forest ecosystems?
Is it possible to eat enough white-tailed deer to keep their populations low enough to restore ecosystems? We posed this question to Bernd Blossey, professor at Cornell University who specializes in the management of invasive species and the re...
April 11, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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31:08
Eating invasive crayfish - a solution to our ecological mess?
Are invasive species natural? If we introduced them, do we have some responsibility to manage them? What if we could reduce their numbers through the natural process of eating?In this episode, Jackie Turner (TABLE) joins crayfish trappe...
April 04, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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21:15
Grasshoppers - agricultural pest or sustainable food?
What if we shifted our perspective from seeing some animal species as a problem to seeing them as an abundant and tasty source of food? Over the next few episodes, we’ll hear three "problems" in three regions: grasshoppers as pests in Mexico, i...
March 28, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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25:06
Should food systems be more natural?
“Is a microbe less natural than a cow?” This season we ask scientists, farmers, technologists and philosophers about how natural our food systems should be. In this age where industrial technology has profoundly transformed our eating h...
March 21, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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44:05
Sofia Wilhelmsson on pig transport and human-animal relations (rebroadcast)
Sofia Wilhelmsson researches a very specific and stressful time for farmed pigs: the loading and transport of pigs on their way to slaughter. She not only considers the welfare of the animals, but also the well-being of the pig transport ...
February 29, 2024
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31:52
What is rewilding? (rebroadcast)
Imagine a world where nature reclaims its place in the landscape. What would that mean for food systems? Walter Fraanje joins Feed co-hosts to talk about his new publication, "Rewilding and its implications for agriculture" co-authored wi...
February 15, 2024
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30:26
Neena Prasad on the power of ultra-processed foods
People across the world are consuming more ultra-processed foods (UPFs). Will Latin American countries and elsewhere follow the path of the US and the UK, where over half of calories consumed now come from UPFs? Dr Neena Prasad, director ...
January 18, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 0
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41:32
Jessica Duncan on COP28 and who shapes food policy
Food systems are finally getting more attention at global climate conversations. But who is at the table shaping our food futures? We caught up with Jessica Duncan, Associate Professor on the Politics of Food Systems Transformations at Wa...
December 07, 2023
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54:43
Presenting A CRISPR Bite: Wine
Is CRISPR the solution to controlling the pest plaguing California’s wine industry? In this episode of A CRISPR Bite, we take you to a lab where researchers are using CRISPR technology to genetically modify a frightening insect called the Glass...
November 16, 2023
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23:47
Will you join the insect revolution?
There are over 2,000 types of insects that people eat across the world. Some of these species could have the potential to be cultivated at scale using less land, less water, and fewer greenhouse gas emissions while supplying a nutritious protei...
October 26, 2023
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27:33
Narrowing the yield gap in Sub-Saharan Africa
The yield gap refers to the difference between the potential agricultural yield that could be achieved under ideal conditions and the actual yield that farmers harvest. In sub-Saharan Africa, the yield gap is in some cases 80% meaning that farm...
October 05, 2023
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39:29
Presenting M4F: Ep8. Looking back, looking forward
Presenting the Meat: the four futures series final episode.--Over the last few months, we explored what the future of meat and livestock could look like. We’ve talked about how our values, ethics and where we live in th...
September 21, 2023
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36:44
Presenting M4F: Ep7. Health, biodiversity, animal ethics
We continue featuring the Meat: the four futures series with episode 7.--We've heard four distinct visions for the future of meat and livestock. But realistically, won't they all play a role? As we wrap up the series in...
September 07, 2023
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53:57