Amanda Little on the Fate of Food

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2022

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today we’re bringing you a timely — and tasty — episode from our archives. Science journalist Amanda Little tells Rufus that the biggest threat posed by climate change is the collapse of our food systems. Provisions we love, like coffee and wine, are losing their flavor. And crops we rely on, like corn and soy, are getting harder to grow. If we don’t change our agricultural practices, we won’t be able to feed the globe’s swelling population. But don’t lose hope. Amanda says that if we can combine the wisdom of traditional farming practices with radical advances in agricultural technology, we might be able to create a healthier, more sustainable, and perhaps even more delicious future.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	When I think of summer, I think of smells, chlorine,
0:04.3	suntan lotion, the briny funk of ocean water, pine trees.
0:08.8	And of course, the smell of summer foods, water melon, corn on the cob,
0:13.2	roasting on the grill, some more. Food is something so many of us take for granted.
0:18.0	I certainly do. And yet, we can no longer do so.
0:21.6	The world in Ukraine has contributed to global food shortages.
0:24.7	In the US, the Consumer Price Index for Food is up 14% since January 2020.
0:30.1	In places like Lebanon, heavily relying on food imports, it's up 3,000%.
0:36.2	Global warming threatens to continue to disrupt our global food system.
0:40.3	And yet, in parallel, extraordinary new innovations are transforming our food system for the better.
0:46.4	I discuss the future of food with one of my favorite people in the world,
0:49.8	my sister, Amanda Little, last year.
0:53.4	Since then, this conversation has become even more timely.
0:58.9	I'm Rufus Griscombe, and this is the next big idea.
1:03.8	Today, why climate change is something you can taste.
1:14.1	September 2015, Maharashtra, India.
1:24.1	Amanda Little is flying in a tiny prop plane, trying not to puke.
1:28.8	It's not the rank smell of sweat and stress that's making her queasy,
1:32.1	though it probably isn't helping.
1:33.7	She's nauseous because this King Air B200 is headed straight for a black and blue monsoon cloud.
1:40.7	A cloud that's more than 20,000 feet from nose to tail.
1:45.5	From the open cockpit to captain chowts, most pilots are trained to avoid these storm systems.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Next Big Idea Club, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Next Big Idea Club and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.