At SXSW, the Refresh Working Group (RWG) will be screening Amy Wu’s documentary, From Farms to Incubators, a powerful portrait of female entrepreneurs in AgTech. An award-winning journalist, Wu joined the RWG to participate in the conversation on food justice, equitable food access, and the positive role technology can play in agriculture.
The Refresh Food + Tech: From Soil to Supper report surveys some of the ways that data is transforming the U.S. food system. From farmers monitoring their cows with HerdDogg’s DoggTags to Agrisource Data using analytics to track food safety and quality throughout the supply chain, the implications for data in the food system are significant and far-reaching.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “World Hunger is on the rise; yet, an estimated 1/3 of all food produced globally is lost or goes to waste.”
Growing up on a farm in Alabama, Dr. Alicia Powers was raised with a love of the land and an appreciation for agriculture from an early age. While others in her family became agro-economists, she took a different path, gravitating to a career in public health nutrition: “With my strong foundation in agriculture and my desire to use the food that’s produced to improve people’s health, nutrition was a natural fit.”
Facing the twin challenges of environmental sustainability and climate change, world political and economic leaders are considering proposals aimed at promoting a food system that can help address these global problems.
Refresh at SXSW
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Google Fiber, 201 Colorado St, Austin, TX 78701
The Refresh Working Group, Google, and Swell Creative Group are excited to announce a day of food activations, discussions, and cooking demonstrations. Join us at SXSW to explore how AI is transforming the entire food system!
Amanda Ramcharan has dedicated her graduate studies to researching and studying farm systems in order to understand the conditions in which they thrive. Early on, she realized that she could use her fascination with technological tools and gadgets to help her better understand how farms can use technology to help assess and solve problems that arise in this system.
The 2018 Farm Bill is the most consequential legislation on food and agriculture in the United States. It was recently signed into law, and many Refresh Working Group members have been weighing in on how it will impact the nation’s food system for the next 5 years.
Jimmy Wright, owner of the independent grocery store Wright’s Market in Opelika, Alabama, learned the ins and outs of the grocery business at an early age.
We recently hosted a launch event in Chicago where we were joined by former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who worked at the USDA during a dynamic time for technology in agriculture.