Starting the E-Food Revolution: Dispatches from SXSW Interactive

On Saturday, at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, a group of about 70 people gathered for “E-Food Revolution: Interactive Tools to Feed the World”. There were writers and activists, entrepreneurs and representatives of large companies in the group. It was great to see Cathy Erway of The Art of Eating In, as well as Leslie Hatfield and her group from GRACE Foundation who have already done a lot to bring food closer to the web. We had people from the Texas Department of Agriculture, National Geographic, and Feeding America. What a diverse and thoughtful group.

The initial discussion revolved around why food was even something we should consider at a conference about social media, entrepreneurship, and design. Concerns about hunger, food waste, and availability of healthy, fresh food were quick to hit the list of reasons. The need for education about where food comes from and what it takes to grow it, data regarding the source and practice behind our food, and the return of food to the home were also on people’s minds. The urgency of shifting a huge, entrenched system and the potential for interactive technologies to facilitate that shift illustrated the tie between the oh-so-21^st-century technology that we were immersed in all weekend and the terribly outdated food system we rely on every single day.

Why are these issues difficult to solve? The group touched on the relatively limited supply of low-impact food compared to highly processed products, the political barriers to making significant changes in crop diversity, the dependence of food production on oil (and whether peak oil also means peak food), questions about how widely sought after healthier options really are, and how necessary it is to reinstate the kitchen as the centrifugal force for a healthy lifestyle.

We also touched on the difficulty of defining the scope of this work. Is it possible to have a conversation about “the food system”, as though there is only one? I was heartened when one of the participants responded to a call for more gardening by pointing out that, while that might be good for people in the developed world, African farmers have no interest in being subsistence farmers; they want their basic needs met so that they can seek more fruitful economic opportunity. So, whose food are we really talking about – ours or everyone’s?

As the talk continued, we introduced a number of companies that are active in applying new technology to food systems. I presented SureHarvest, IBM, Earthster, and MIT-led NextLab and Sourcemap, and initiatives like Foodgeeks and Greenling all had representation in the room. These groups are using everything from software development for farmers, to open source product and supply chain mapping, to online marketplaces for sustainable food, to creative approaches to land use, as ways of promoting healthier food and agricultural systems. What I find most fascinating is that there is burgeoning activity in the food+tech field that, if it continues to grow and becomes increasingly coordinated, could have significant effects on bringing about positive changes in how we eat. As Karen Correa (with whom I am connected through both food and rock and roll) put it after the session, everyone’s just got to keep doing what they’re doing.

One of the greatest affirmations of the discussion we had came on Sunday afternoon, when Valerie Casey of the Designers Accord presented Designing a Movement: Integrating Sustainability Through Systems Thinking. She implored the audience of interactive designers and thinkers to turn their focus to the systems that are in need of change and revitalization, that human beings depend on, and that are bound to be in crisis if we continue to design around the symptoms rather than resolve the root causes of our problems.

Is technology the answer? Many in the group viewed technology as a vehicle for educating and empowering the movement. One participant described technology as being able to bring a virtual conversation to the physical world. I am intrigued by the possibility of merging the parts of the food system that are of the physical world – the ecosystems, the farmers, the soil and nutrients, with those of the digital world – the data that accompanies each decision, each crop, and each purchase. How will it be done? It’s hard to say, but the enthusiasm that this group of creative people has for reinvigorating how we eat could be transformative.