The routes beneath the roots : a system map for prospective food innovators striving for sustainable disruption

From sci-fi food-substituting floury drinks to lab-engineered, plant blood-based patties that grill and smell just like steak, food innovation is blossoming. The modern food movement is challenging the assumptions at the root of our current food system in the face of an appalling health and environmental bill; and all of the voices in the system are implicated in this resounding trial. On the one hand, 40% of the food we grow goes to waste in a country in which two thirds of eaters are overweight or obese, prisoners outnumber farmers and all the cattle aligned head to tail could circle the earth up to 35 times. On the other hand, 2.3 billion dollars were injected in food tech in 2015 in the United States alone, to tackle these problems on the private front. But where do dollars meet flaws? What sparks innovation in food and agriculture today and what would a food innovation map look like for the United States? The hereby report presents a selective, subjective and dynamic representation of food and agriculture innovation, after eight months of immersion in the American food system as a buyer, an eater, an investigator and a narrator; all of Netflix and TED's food repertoire; thousands of pages from food, agriculture, agronomy and system thinking literature; days of cumulated conversations with prominent food thinkers and fast-food queuers alike; and 10,000+ kilometers walked, driven and flown to food talks and conferences across Boston, Cambridge, New York and San Francisco. This report explores the root causes behind the problematic symptoms of our broken food system, and the current and prospective pathways to spur innovation-driven systemic and behavioral change, in a collective effort to build a more sustainable food system.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Chkaiban, Marie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• William Aulet.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104540

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/104540