Refresh hopes to return to SXSW March 13-22, 2020 in Austin, Texas! YOU can help us get there by voting for our panel, “The Data-Driven Food System: From Soil to Supper,” before the selection period ends on Friday, August 23rd. How to Cast Your Vote Visit our SXSW page: https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/96531 Create a #PanelPicker account Confirm […]
For Kevin Krueger—the Procurement and Sustainability Manager at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and a Refresh Working Group Member—the hospital cafeteria plays a vital role in the fight to prevent, treat, and cure catastrophic pediatric diseases. In this role, he is responsible for sourcing well over one million meals a year. Inspired by the innovative […]
[Re-post from Food Tank] This article by Thea Walmsley and Danielle Nierenberg originally appeared on the blog for Food Tank, a think tank committed to environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable ways to fortify the global food system. Nierenberg is President of Food Tank and an expert in sustainable agriculture and gender and populations. In the […]
The Shifting Landscape of Food Retail Building what The Wall Street Journal calls the “store of the future,” major grocers are investing in new, digitally-networked models that track consumer data and incentivize customer loyalty through cloud-based rewards programs. In fact, the same article calls technologically optimized shopping experiences “one of the most important weapons in […]
The Smart Supply Chain The International Food Information Council identified transparency as one of the “Five Food Trends To Watch in 2019.” People are not only interested in where their food comes from but have come to expect it as consumer awareness grows around the environmental (and other) impacts of the journey from “farm to […]
This blog post by Kate Brandt, Google’s Chief Sustainability Officer, originally appeared on Google’s blog, The Keyword. Brandt explains the principles of a Circular Economy and outlines Google’s vision for a sustainable world through such measures as “designing out waste and pollution” and reducing food waste. People love stuff. During the 20th Century, the use […]
Every year, 133 billion pounds of food go to waste in the US—that’s roughly 30–40% of the nation’s overall food supply, totaling between $161–218 billion in economic losses. At the same time that one-third of the nation’s food supply went uneaten, 40 million people lived in food-insecure households in 2017, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Inaccurate food labels are one of the primary culprits of the waste crisis.
Refresh Working Group member Kevin Krueger, who manages food program purchasing and sustainability programs for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, attended Davos On The Delta last month in Memphis, Tennessee. Kevin shares his insights and takeaways as founders of agtech startups gathered to learn more from one another and to connect with prospective investors.
By developing software that creates acreage reports while integrating with existing farm management systems, Deb and her team have managed to make a necessary but tedious process much easier with the development of MyAgData. Not only does it save farmers time, it also ensures that they provide the most accurate information possible. This is a crucial part of purchasing crop insurance and participating in USDA sponsored programs.
The food system in the US is vast and complex. The Maryland Food System Map is a powerful illustration of that complexity, given the magnitude of data you might need to evaluate in just one state. However, the map is also an important tool in cutting through that complexity.