Historic Food as a Path to the Future

For the past 150 years, we’ve experienced paradigmatic shifts in how and what we eat. New food delivery options, fast-casual concepts, meal kits, and processed foods now appear frequently. For the first time in history, we expect our markets to carry a dizzying array of foods, from meat to milk to veggies — even those very much out of season.

However, the growing, packaging, and shipping of food (sometimes called the “food system,” though it’s far more than a single system) involve incredibly complex, interconnected operations and specific resources to work as they do. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the cracks in our food system’s shiny veneer, as stores struggled to restock shelves while, at the other end of the supply chain, farmers dumped milk and eggs