The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) whose members are scientists, researchers, technologists and food professionals from 100 countries working in academia, industry and government, recently unveiled a sweeping new program called FutureFood 2050, to create a broad dialogue on how science will deliver solutions needed to feed the world's nine billion people by the year 2050.
With the launch of FutureFood 2050, IFT has expanded its publishing mission to reach a broader audience through its interview series and upcoming documentary film. Under the direction of an independent editorial team, FutureFood 2050 will come to life over the coming months with 75 interviews featuring independent-minded thought leaders around the globe. At the same time, a documentary will be completed looking at how the science of food will contribute solutions to feeding the world. The documentary will provide the public with a closer, more intimate look at the science, stories and personalities addressing this challenge.
"Many films have focused on food issues, but they often neglect or misinterpret the role of science, sometimes relying on personal beliefs more than facts," says Scott Hamilton Kennedy, the Academy Award-nominated film director overseeing the FutureFood 2050 documentary, scheduled for release in mid to late 2015. "By looking at this challenge through the unbiased lens of science, our goal is to address critical questions surrounding food in a fair, transparent manner that will hopefully surprise, and maybe even transform us along the way."
From now until the film's 2015 release, the FutureFood 2050 interview series will look more broadly at the ways that science is tackling the world's most pressing food issues. A new website at www.FutureFood2050.com will serve as a digital hub for the public to follow the stories and connect science to the conversation about how to feed the planet. An international team of editors and journalists, including award-winning author of The Taste of Tomorrow: Dispatches from the Future of Food, Josh Schonwald, will uncover the stories that shape the interview series.
The 75 articles will be bundled in monthly themes over this year and next, and are available at: www.FutureFood2050.com.
Already available are the first three articles covering the following:
Former Executive Director of the UN's World Food Programme, Catherine Bertini, who is working to empower the world's women as the missing link in global food aid programs; Legendary geneticist, M.S. Swaminathan, heralded as the father of India's "Green Revolution," saying it's time for the next step: greater agricultural productivity without ecological damage; and cutting-edge engineer, Anjan Contractor, who is bringing food science to space travel by helping NASA feed astronauts on Mars and beyond with 3-D food printing.
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