Food & the City Conference 2013

The Food Lab at the University of Texas at Austin presents Food, the City & Innovation, a two-day conference roundtable at The Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas. This conference is the second installment of a project launched at Boston University that explores the connections between food, cities, and innovation. Both The Food Lab at UT and Boston University believe that the climate for innovation in the food industry could not be better. New food start-ups are appearing around the world, led by engineers,… Show more artists, scientists, and architects. Rooftop gardens, 3-D printed meat, food incubators, food studies programs, community gardens, farmers markets, and mobile applications join in finding solutions. Encouraged by more informed consumers, businesses and educational institutions are seeking ways to both re-invent and improve our global food system.
 
These conference discussions are aimed at broadening our understanding of the food system while seeking new ideas and models for delivering food to our growing cities.

The roundtable participants will offer insights and experiences from three perspectives: as scholars, presenting examples of how innovation occurred in the past to create urban provisioning systems; as members of the global food community, sharing their experiences and ideas about the opportunities for innovation with our current food system; and as entrepreneurs who are leading innovation in the food space.

The purpose of this conference is to explore questions about our food system that require experimentation, nontraditional approaches, and multidisciplinary ways of thinking. Throughout these two days we will identify key opportunities for innovation within the global food system and create a road-map for new food entrepreneurs.
The Food Lab at UT explores innovative approaches to improving our global food system. It promotes creativity and entrepreneurship by integrating science, technology and the study of the humanities (art, history, literature, music, philosophy).

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