Food Innovation Global Mission was in Mumbai on 7th July and organized an event called “Food is a conversation: Edible Issues” hosted by Anusha Murthy and Elizabeth Yorke master students, Food Innovation Program at The Bombay Canteen.
I was thrilled to attend the panel discussion, as the panelist were-
- Varun Deshpande, MD, Good Food Institute
- Dr. Kurush Dalal, Assistant Professor Archaeology, University of Mumbai
- Thomas Zacharias, Chef Partner, The Bombay Canteen
- Sara Roversi, Founder, Future Food Institute
The panel discussed about the pressing issues about sustainability of food, farming, food processing, traditional Indian Food and lot more. Varun Deshpande discussed about lab grown meat, and plant based meat products, this could be the future of protein and I am certain to see it on our food menu in the next five years.
Chef Thomas discussed about sustainability of food, the need of bringing creativity in the food we eat. Dr. Kurush Dalal shared some amazing facts about the connection between Archeaology and Food, I was amazed to know how these two areas could be co-related.
Dr. Dalal discussed in depth about the need for farming, cutting down reduction in wastage of food. He also mentioned about, how abundant the earth used to be in terms of food. To this day when we witness great amount of food wasted each day all round the globe.
The panelist talked about “GMOs” as they are misunderstood by the masses in general. The fact that horticulturist have been experimenting with techniques like grafting for growing fruits and vegetables, in the due course of time we did come across change in genetic make up of few speices in the plant kingdom. Likewise, genetic engineering in plants is done on the lab-scale in a shorter span of time as compared to grafting. We may see the results sooner, or modify if we observe any discrepancy in the make up of the genes.
Sara Roversi, was an inspiration. She talked about how she started with Future Food Institute, about the Food Innovation Program and their experience during 2016 Food Innovation Global Mission (FIGP). She mentioned about how a five star hotel in India is working towards creating a sustainable environment, by treating food wastes, using hydroponics to grow lettuce, they also visited an organic chicken farm in the outskrits of Mumbai.
On a personal note, this event offered clarity on the current situation of food distribution, sustainability and importance of considering alternative sources of growing food. FIGP was indeed a great platform to meet these amazing panelist, network with the master’s students of the Food Innovation Program, and let us dive deep into their experience of the Food Innovation Global Mission 2018.
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