Eating in the Anthropocene

Over the last few years hackers have begun to take a larger interest in food, gastronomy and agriculture. For many in the community the ability to create DIY molecular gastronomy hardware and recipes is an obvious entry point. This talk extends some of these early investigations beyond the kitchen and the chemical properties of food by looking at specific cultivars, food technology organizations, and connections between food systems, ecosystems and planetary change.

Part 1 of the talk explores some of the more bizarre and interesting biotechnologies and genomes that make up the human food system on planet earth, including Chinese Space Potatoes, Mutagenic Grapefruits and Glowing Sushi.

Pat 2 of the talk presents ideas of food system redesign particularly relevant to hackers and food explorers: utopian cuisines, resilient biotechnologies and eaters as agents of selection.

In Part 3 we provide access to resources and propose interesting projects for black hat food hackers, DIY BIO foodies, and prospective food security researchers, such as mining the IAEA's database of radiation breeding, eating things that weren't meant to be eaten and defending agricultural biodiversity.

By introducing less known stories from the history of food and technology, and providing access to resources we hope to get more hackers curious about exploring, questioning and redesigning our human food systems.

BIO: Zack Denfeld & Cathrine Kramer run the Center for Genomic Gastronomy an independent research institute that studies the genomes and biotechnologies that make up the human food systems on the planet. They are currently in residence at Art Science Bangalore and a curating a show on the future of food at the Science Gallery in Dublin Ireland.