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 it’s fair to call CRISPR a natural way of "speeding up the breeding" process, whether technological innovations such as gene editing are addressing root causes of food systems challenges, and if there’s space for middle ground on such a polarizing issue.

For more info and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/episode61

Guests

• Lauren Crossland-Marr, Assistant Professor at the University of La Verne

Resources

• First Fruit by Belinda Martineau
• Channa Prakash on GMs, Golden Rice and the Green Revolution

Episode edited and produced by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

hat 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 choices are primarily shaped by cultural, political and economic forces. This episode dives into the dramatic shifts in Swedish diets over the past century, highlighting how changes such as new food preservation methods in the 1970s, Sweden's entry into the European Union in the 1990s, and shifting cultural trends throughout have redefined what's fashionable, and therefore possible, to eat.

This is the second installment of a two-part series, following our first episode with archaeological chemist Amy Styring who investigates what our ancestors ate during periods of significant societal transitions. Listen to Part 1.

For more info and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/episode60

Guests

• Richard Tellström, Associate Professor at Stockholm University

Episode edited and produced by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

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 light on this question.

In this episode, we ask Amy Styring, archaeological chemist at the University of Oxford, what's her take on a natural diet, whether we overestimate the role of meat in our past diets, and what lessons can we learn today if we have a better understanding of how people produced and ate food in the past?

This is the first of a two-part series. Next week we hear from a meal historian on the role culture plays in informing what we eat.

For more info and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/episode59

Guests

• Amy Styring, Associate Professor at the University of Oxford

Episode edited and produced by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

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 restoration of disrupted ecological relationships.

In this episode, we look at the history of white-tailed deer in the eastern forests of the United States, how many we would need to harvest to keep the population in check, and whether the concept of ecosystem balance is scientific or a fantasy.

This is the third and final part of our series exploring whether we can eat our way out of the problems we’ve created. Let us know what you think by sending us an email or a voice memo to podcast@tablededebates.org.

For more info and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/episode58

Guests

• Bernd Blossey, Professor at Cornell University

Episode edited and produced by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

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 trapper Bob Ring to see if we can eat our way out of one of the environmental problems we’ve created - the spread of invasive American Signal Crayfish into the river Thames. We ask if these invasive crayfish are ‘natural’, how they ended up in London’s iconic river in the first place, whether they offer a promising sustainable food source, and why it is so difficult to earn a living doing what Bob Ring sees as an environmentally and ethically beneficial act.

This is the second of a three part series exploring if we can eat our way out of the problems we’ve caused. The last episode featured grasshoppers in Mexico and the next will be on white-tailed deer in forests of the eastern United States.

For more info and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/episode57

Guests

• Bob Ring, Crayfish Trapper in London

Episode edited and produced by Jackie Turner. Music by William King and Blue dot sessions.

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, invasive crayfish in London and overpopulated white-tailed deer in the United States.

With a rising trend for traditional foods, demand for grasshoppers has exploded in Mexico in the last decade--but is it sustainable? We ask sociologist-biologist Elena Lazos Chavero about the environmental, political, cultural, and health consequences of Mexico's appetite for grasshoppers.

For more info and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/episode56

Guests

• Elena Lazos Chavero, professor-researcher at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico.

Episode edited and produced by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

“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 habits and the landscapes around us, we explore whether we should let nature be our ultimate guide or fully lean into the technological innovations reshaping our world.

From the traditional milpa systems of Mexico to the cutting edge laboratories of food scientists, we bring together voices across the spectrum: an economist, an indigenous leader, a food technologist and an agroecologist. Each presents their perspective on the benefits—or drawbacks—of 'natural' food systems for both human health and the planet's well-being.

For more info and resources, visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/episode55

Guests

• Anna Lappé, Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food
• Jayson Lusk, Dean and Vice President of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University
• Tania Eulalia Martinez Cruz, Director of the Food Sovereignty and Agroecology program at Land is Life
• Johan Jorgensen, Founder Partner at Sweden Food Tech

Episode edited and produced by Matthew Kessler. Music by Blue dot sessions.

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 drivers. In our conversation we chat about the relationships that humans have with animals; what food systems actors have the most power in the pig production system; and whether we can add incentives for animal welfare and human well-being in our food systems.

For more info, please visit: https://tabledebates.org/podcast/episode54

Interested in more podcasts about the future of meat and human-animal relations, Meat the four futures (Table, 2023)
Barbecue Earth (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2024)