Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating (Mit Press). This item is unavailable.Food Routes: Growing Bananas in Iceland and Other Tales from the Logistics of Eating (Mit Press)

The global food supply chain is in the midst of a transformation, and that change is cause to re-imagine a future food system that actually may look very different from our traditional practice of delivering food from farms to tables. Increasingly, farmers are also engineers, crops are grown in enclosed vertical structures, and ""clean meat"" is raised in laboratories rather than on the range. Technology and Big Data are changing not only the who and the where, but how food gets our plates- food printers, lab dishes, or from personalized in-home farms. The possibilities and consequences of a smart, interconnected food system are only now becoming visible. No more invisible supply chains; the future food system will operate transparently and faster. By understanding the history, complexity, and potential of the global food supply chain, consumers, policy makers, and the food industry can shape the future of food.

Robyn Metcalfe is founder and director of Food + City, a UT Austin-based lab that brings attention to how we feed cities now and how innovations in ag (lab-grown food?) and transportation (drones? 3D printing?) will transform the food supply chain as we know it. Of interest- she's an ultramarathoner, wrote for Sunset Magazine, and has a Cordon Bleu certificate for culinary skills.