An extreme amount of work, thought and scrutiny goes into the production of food. Yet nearly half of the U.S. food supply — or 80 billion pounds — is wasted each year. A lot of this waste is the result of Mother Nature and production restrictions placed on growers by grocers, vendors and companies to have the picture-perfect tomato or right-size potato. This combined with consumers who overbuy at the grocery store have created a perfect storm of discarded food.

Episode Breakdown:

• Why are these standards of perfection placed on farmers in the first place?
• How are companies and other advocates looking at the whole production process — from farm to table — differently?
• How can perfectly good food be prevented from going to waste?

To learn more about Steve Alameda and Topflavor Farms, visit: http://topflavor.com/. To learn more about Mark Mason and Nature’s Reward, visit: www.naturesreward.com. To learn more about Tim Glenn and Corteva Agriscience’s sustainability efforts, visit: www.corteva.com/sustainability.

In Part 1 of our Alt-Foods series, we learned about the amazing, sometimes fantastical, future of food. Now let’s come back to the present food revolution: The plant-based food movement is booming. Grocery sales of plant-based foods have jumped 29% in the past two years, topping $5 billion in 2020. Meanwhile, the traditional food industry is responding to this revolution and evolving rapidly on its own.

Episode Breakdown

• What new foods are plant-based pioneers creating?
• How do you develop a plant-based egg?
• How is traditional agriculture responding to plant-based alternatives?
• What new innovations can traditional agriculture offer?
• Will the plant-based industry and traditional agriculture be able to work together and play nice?

To learn more about Josh Tetrick and JUST Foods, visit: www.ju.st. To learn more about Emily Metz and the American Egg Board, visit: https://www.incredibleegg.org/.

In Part 1 of our Alt-Foods series, we dive into the amazing science and technology that’s powering the future of food. Meat grown in a lab. Meals 3D-printed at your kitchen table. And a Nobel Prize-winning technology that edits genes — and our perception of food itself.

In Part 2, we’ll bring you to the present, on the front lines of the food-science debate, exploring how two very different industry leaders envision alternative foods.

Episode Breakdown: What scientific innovations are changing our food? | How do you grow a cell-based hamburger? | How can genetics and CRISPR technology lead to innovative food changes? | How do we reduce the costs of making lab-based food? | As technology evolves, what responsibility do scientists have to protect the integrity of our food?

To learn more about Rodolphe Barrangou, visit: https://cals.ncsu.edu/food-bioprocessing-and-nutrition-sciences/people/rbarran/. To learn more about Vitor Santo and JUST Foods, visit: https://www.ju.st/ and https://www.ju.st/stories/good-meat.