As archaeologists pored over ancient tombs in western China, they discovered some surprisingly well-preserved and familiar relics. Though hardened over 1,000 years, there sat little crescent-shaped dumplings. So who invented these plump pockets of perfection, and how did they spread across the world? Miranda Brown traces the tangled, mysterious ...

What if we could use biology to restore our balance with nature without giving up modern creature comforts? Advocating for a new kind of environmentalism, scientist and entrepreneur Emily Leproust rethinks modern sustainability at the molecular level, using synthetic biology to create green alternatives. From lab-developed insulin and disease-re...

Cookbook author (and geek) Nathan Myhrvold talks about his magisterial work, "Modernist Cuisine" -- and shares the secret of its cool photographic illustrations, which show cross-sections of food in the very act of being cooked.

Speaking at the 2007 EG conference, "renegade lunch lady" Ann Cooper talks about the coming revolution in the way kids eat at school -- local, sustainable, seasonal and even educational food.

Should a cauliflower be valued and preserved like the Mona Lisa? What would it mean to us if we lost the cauliflower as a species? The world has experienced a 75 percent decrease in horticultural diversity in the past 150 years. Botanist and educator Esther Meduna explains why this is a problem and how the seed libraries popping up worldwide are...

As the world's population increases, food production must match growing need. How do we achieve this with a fixed — and, in some regions, dwindling — amount of tillable land? Researcher Ranveer Chandra explains how data could be the answer, helping farmers everywhere maximize production while minimizing costs and resource drain.

"Tipping Point" author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce -- and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.

There's something amazing growing in the city of Detroit: healthy, accessible, delicious, fresh food. In a spirited talk, fearless farmer Devita Davison explains how features of Detroit's decay actually make it an ideal spot for urban agriculture. Join Davison for a walk through neighborhoods in transformation as she shares stories of opportunit...

We're headed towards a global food crisis: Nearly 3 billion people depend on the ocean for food, and at our current rate we already take more fish from the ocean than it can naturally replace. In this fact-packed, eye-opening talk, entrepreneur and conservationist Mike Velings proposes a solution: Aquaculture, or fish farming. "We must start usi...

In 1968, Dr. Robert Ho Man Kwok felt ill after dinner at a Chinese restaurant and wrote a letter to a medical journal connecting his symptoms to MSG. His letter would change the world's relationship with MSG, inspiring international panic, biased science and sensationalist journalism for the next 40 years. So what is this seasoning, and is it ac...

At the Taste3 conference, chef Dan Barber tells the story of a small farm in Spain that has found a humane way to produce foie gras. Raising his geese in a natural environment, farmer Eduardo Sousa embodies the kind of food production Barber believes in.

There are over 100 billion animals in the global food system, taking an enormous collective toll on our health and the environment. In this eye-opening talk, animal advocate and social scientist Jacy Reese makes a compelling argument as to why (and how) we should relegate the factory farming of animals to history's scrap pile.

Batch to batch, crust to crust ... In tribute to the beloved staple food, baking master Peter Reinhart reflects on the cordial couplings (wheat and yeast, starch and heat) that give us our daily bread. Try not to eat a slice.

In an infectiously joyous talk, Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi shares the sugary jolt of her first food memory and behind-the-scenes stories of her bakery's famously inventive cakes, cookies and treats. This talk may make you hungry -- but it'll also leave you a resonant message about how breaking the rules and challenging your assumptions can ...

Imagine an original recipe for every meal that takes into consideration dietary restrictions, personal preferences, and what is in your fridge at that moment? Meet Chef Watson, the world's first cognitive cooking application, and its head software engineer: Florian Pinel. Florian explores some of the implications for society once computers catch...

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys."

Britta Riley wanted to grow her own food (in her tiny apartment). So she and her friends developed a system for growing plants in discarded plastic bottles -- researching, testing and tweaking the system using social media, trying many variations at once and quickly arriving at the optimal system. Call it distributed DIY. And the results? Delici...

Could smartphones and cameras be our most powerful weapons for social justice? Through her organization Witness, Yvette Alberdingk Thijm is developing strategies and technologies to help activists use video to protect and defend human rights. She shares stories of the growing power of distant witnesses -- and a call to use the powerful tools at ...

Farming feeds all of us -- yet in rural communities, farmers are under pressure from mounting climate volatility and limited access to modern tools like the internet. How can agriculture stay resilient and grow with the times? Beth Ford, CEO of the farming co-op Land O'Lakes, shares her plan to establish broadband as a basic right nationwide and...

What can we expect our kids to learn if they're hungry or eating diets full of sugar and empty of nutrients? Former White House Chef and food policymaker Sam Kass discusses the role schools can play in nourishing students' bodies in addition to their minds.

We are what we spend. Social entrepreneur Andrew Youn sees this as an opportunity. His nonprofit, One Acre Fund, helps small farmers lift themselves out of poverty, with incredible results -- and it's grown three-fold in size since receiving investment from The Audacious Project. With cool candor, he imagines what could happen if we put just one...

Biochar is a kind of charcoal that removes CO2 from the atmosphere, helping yield healthy crops and even producing abundant renewable energy in the form of electricity as it's made. This exciting climate change fighter is ready for scaling now. Entrepreneur Axel Reinaud outlines three ways to make this material more accessible to farmers -- so t...

From "got milk?" to "avocados from Mexico," marketing influences what you eat more than you may realize. But despite the known power of food marketing, farmers in Africa are more likely to receive funding for seed and fertilizer than they are for advertising geniuses. Agricultural development expert Zoë Karl-Waithaka outlines three ways industry...

What's tasty, abundant and high in protein? Bugs! Although less common outside the tropics, entomophagy, the practice of eating bugs, was once extremely widespread throughout cultures. You may feel icky about munching on insects, but they feed about 2 billion people each day (Mmm, fried tarantulas). They also hold promise for food security and t...

The average farmer in America makes less than 15 cents of every dollar on a product that you purchase at a store. They feed our communities, but farmers often cannot afford the very foods they grow. In this actionable talk, social entrepreneur Mohammad Modarres shows how to put your purchasing power into action to save local agriculture from col...

Cette présentation a été faite lors d'un événement TEDx local, produit indépendamment des conférences TED. Elisabeth Pierre est passionnée des bières et connaît toutes les facettes de sa boisson préférée. Elle aime aussi casser les stéréotypes et montre combien la bière est en fait plus féminine que masculine. Elisabeth est zythologue, une de...

One of the top chefs from Pasta Palace has been kidnapped by operatives from Burger Bazaar hoping to learn the location of their secret sauce recipe. Little do they know that a third party— Sausage Saloon— has sent you, their top spy, to take advantage of the situation. Can you figure out the location of the secret recipe and steal it for yourse...

Forget quinoa. Meet fonio, an ancient "miracle grain" native to Senegal that's versatile, nutritious and gluten-free. In this passionate talk, chef Pierre Thiam shares his obsession with the hardy crop and explains why he believes that its industrial-scale cultivation could transform societies in Africa.

For billions of people, seafood provides a significant source of protein and nutrition, but over half the seafood we eat isn't caught in the wild, it's grown through aquaculture. Farmed seafood is one of the fastest-growing food industries, but the farming methods echo the problems we've seen in industrial agriculture. Is there a way to sustaina...

When you eat something loaded with sugar, your taste buds, your gut and your brain all take notice. This activation of your reward system is not unlike how bodies process addictive substances such as alcohol or nicotine -- an overload of sugar spikes dopamine levels and leaves you craving more. Nicole Avena explains why sweets and treats should ...