2016 reTHINK FOOD PROGRAM SUMMARY

The theme for the third annual reThink Food Conference (held November 4-6, 2016) explored key tensions innervating the worlds of food, technology, behavior, and design. The content of the 2016 program was driven by these tensions, which included the tension between old and new; novel and familiar; tradition and innovation in food, tech, behavior and design. Presentations from the conference are available to download at the bottom of the page.

Renowned speakers brought to life issues central to these tensions, including advancements in nutrition informatics, robotics, data transparency, supply chain optimization, and sustainable food innovations. Together we discussed several questions central to the conference theme:

• Are high-tech fixes the best options for current food systems challenges?
• What opportunities are there in the space between high tech and low tech?
• Are we in a new “era of limits,” and if so — how do we present restraint as abundance?
• How can we make limits palatable to consumers and feasible for businesses?
• How can food design, behavior, and technology build “culinary literacy” and reconnect us to living foods?
• How does fast versus slow affect our food values and experiences?
• How do we help consumers and businesses keep up with the pace of innovation in food?

Find the 2016 reThink Food YouTube playlist here, or click on the video player below to watch all general sessions and seminars held on the Ventura stage during the 2016 conference.

This free reThink Food webcast was made possible by the generous support of Webcast Premier Presenting Sponsor Rich Products and Webcast Presenting Sponsor, Unilever Food Solutions.

Photos

Presentations

“Fermented Food,” Camille Delebecque (Afineur)

“ReThink Health When What We Eat Becomes Who We Are,” Daniel Almonacid (Bioinformatics)

“Reinventing Tradition,” Australis Miyokos Kitchen (Australis Miyokos Kitchen)

“Farmers Business Network,” Annie Baldwin (Farmers Business Network)

“Stories of our Everyday Shape our Lives,” Emily Baltz (Food Technologist)

“Ingredient Map,” Ali Bouzari (Pilot R&D)

“Flavor,” Ali Bouzari & Henry Wedler (Pilot R&D)

“Listen to Your Food,” Kevin Brown (Innit)

“Data Science in Agriculture,” Parag Chitnis (National Institute of Food and Agriculture)

“From Soil to Bottle: An Interactive Look at the Microbiome of Wine,” Adrian Ferrero & John Dimos (Biome Makers, Inc.)

“Special Thanks to Our Sponsors,” Greg Drescher (Culinary Institute of America)

“Living Technologies for Ecological Problems,” Kevin Esvelt (MIT Media Lab)

“Harnessing Technology to Transform and Impact Food Systems,” Michael Ferrari (The Weather Company)

“Transforming the Future of Food through Discovery,” Jim Flatt (Hampton Creek)

"Handpick,” Handpick (Handpick)

“Agricultural Revolutions Radically Change Human Behavior,” Caleb Harper (Open Agriculture Initiative)

“Potential Crop Yields,” Indigo Ag (Indigo Ag)

“Nom” Vijay Karunamurthy (Nom)

“Loving Food that Loves Us Back: Of Choices, Voices, and Elephants in The Room,” Davit Katz (Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center)

“Unlocking the Miraculous Data in Food,” Nora Khaldi (Nuritas)

“Re-Imagining Culinary Innovation: A Novel approach to Product Creation,” Peter Klosse (The Academy for Scientific Taste Research)

“The Future Will Not Be Televised: The Future Will Be Personalized,” Mathew Lange (UC Davis)

“Keeping Up with the Pace of Food Innovation,” Laurie Demeritt (The Hartman Group)

“The Future Market,” Mike Lee (Studio Industries)

“Healthy Food, Healthy Workers,” Megan Mokri (Byte)

“Robotics and Food: Who’s Cooking Now,” Mark Oleynik (Moley Robotics)

“New Harvest: Accelerating Breakthroughs in Cellular Agriculture,” Gilonned Origny (New Harvest)

“Perfect Day: Dairy Without Compromise,” Ryan Panday (Perfect Day)

“The Experience of Food: Bottom Up and Top Down Tasting Menus and Some Verse,” Paul Rozin (University of Pennsylvania)

“Robotics & Food,” Tim Ryan (Culinary Institute of America)

“Sally: The Salad Robot,” Deepak Sekar (Casabots)

“Innovation at the Intersection of Technology, Behavior, Design, and Food,” Kevin Slavin (MIT Media Lab)

“The Externalities of Scale,” Kevin Slavin (MIT Media Lab)

“The Future at Scale,” Kevin Slavin (MIT Media Lab)

“Algae: The Mother of All Plants,” Jonathan Wolfson (TerraVia)

“Transformative Appetite,” Lining Tao (MIT Media Lab)