The Common Table
@thecommontable.eu
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A platform for food thinking, food futures and systemic change
https://thecommontable.eu/
pinned post!
The Common Table is a publishing platform dedicated to food futures and systemic change. We bring diverse viewpoints and insights from around the world to the table, to enable greater constructive dialogue and exchange. We believe in better and fairer food futures for everyone.
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The Common Table By Studio_lovell
The publishing platform for stories about food futures and systemic change
https://thecommontable.eu/
over 1 year ago
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We just published a wonderfully hopeful interview with Tara Shyam, Executive Director of
@regen10.bsky.social
an alliance whose mission is to change the entire food system, resiliently, regeneratively and responsibly. Images:
@kadirvanlohuizen.bsky.social
thecommontable.eu/how-to-feed-...
8 days ago
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It's not news that there is something pretty toxic about the fine-dining industry. Instances of abuse and mental health issues abound. We sought out a Michelin-starred chef who has been through the system and thought long and hard about system change.
thecommontable.eu/remove-the-a...
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Remove The Arbiters Of Taste — The Common Table
We talk to the Michelin-starred chef Ivan Brehm of Nouri in Singapore about artifice, agency, and the unsustainable game fine dining has become.
https://thecommontable.eu/remove-the-arbiters-of-taste/
25 days ago
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"Whether the strategy succeeds could depend less on its legislation than on whether the cultural understanding of soil shifts from background condition to central actor." The EU Soil Strategy's Soil Monitoring Law went into force in December 2025, but is it enough to save our soils and ourselves?
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SOS: Who's Saving Our Soils? — The Common Table
The EU Soil Strategy for 2030 was launched as part of the European Green Deal, but is it enough to save our soils and ourselves?
https://thecommontable.eu/sos-whos-saving-our-soils/
2 months ago
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In The Last Harvest, we feature a beautiful documentary film by Dan Saladino and the Gaia Foundation about ecologist, scientist, and farmer Dr Debal Deb, who has spent decades working with his community to save over 1,400 rice varieties from extinction.
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The Last Harvest — The Common Table
Dr Debal Deb and The Last Harvest is a documentary about one man's decades-long battle to rescue India's indigenous rice diversity from oblivion. Journalist Dan Saladino visits Basudha Farm in Odisha,...
https://thecommontable.eu/the-last-harvest/
3 months ago
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The Burnt Chef Revolution: In a timely interview, Kris Hall, the founder of The Burnt Chef Project, discusses how he came to found a global mental health support network for the hospitality industry – a professional field renowned for its toxic work environments.
thecommontable.eu/the-burnt-ch...
3 months ago
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The strange story of WWII veteran Stanley Green, who spent 25 years, from 1968 to 1993, standing on the corner of Oxford Street in London, urging people to adopt a low-protein diet and dampen their passions. Was he a proto-incel or a beacon of resilience – or both?
thecommontable.eu/beans-peas-n...
3 months ago
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The Future is Ancestral: "They are not farmers anymore; they are the guardians of the environment. They’re keepers of knowledge. What they need to do is not just produce crops, but produce life."
thecommontable.eu/the-future-i...
3 months ago
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How can grassroots support of local producers, regional ecology and traditional practice work without commercial exploitation? By making education the product. Our latest interview is with a honey expert in Oaxaca.
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The Honey Merchant — The Common Table
Diego Contreras is a honey expert from the uniquely biodiverse region of Oaxaca. His project Nunduve aims to educate consumers about honey's origins and environmental issues, rather than just its flav...
https://thecommontable.eu/the-honey-merchant/
4 months ago
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"If you go to difficult places and start talking about something as common and good as cooking, eating, and food traditions, then you can break through some of the alienation between readers and subjects." There is so much to learn through the lens of food.
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Through The Lens Of Food — The Common Table
Nathan Thornburgh, co-founder and publisher of Roads & Kingdoms, who worked closely with Anthony Bourdain, explains how food can be a lens on the world and the soul.
https://thecommontable.eu/through-the-lens-of-food/
4 months ago
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“The preparation, textures, and slowness of food scenes in Ghibli films, such as the clatter of bowls, steam rising from soups, and the slurping sounds of characters eating, all evoke sensory comfort; a cinematic version of a warm hug.”
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The Ghibli Foodiverse — The Common Table
In the Studio Ghibli foodiverse, food is hearth and home, conjuring a sensual state of longing and belonging, says Sophie Lovell.
https://thecommontable.eu/the-ghibli-foodiverse/
7 months ago
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Supply chain transparency and integrity are not just good practice; they are also becoming mandatory. Food industry expert William Harris and Cynthia Asaf of Pacifical talking about why digital technology is a game-changer for the industry, with implications for supply chain monitoring worldwide.
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Transparent Tuna — The Common Table
Cynthia Asaf of Pacifical on using digital traceability to improve transparency and integrity in the Pacific tuna supply chain and why it's a game-changer.
https://thecommontable.eu/transparent-tuna/
8 months ago
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Can Food Design improve our relationships with food, or is it just fancy plating? OxfordFoodSymposium’ Kitchen Table &
@thecommontable.eu
invited Priya Mani, Sonia Massari,
@fparasecoli.bsky.social
, Laila Snevele,
@sophielovell.com
& Orlando Lovell to discuss.
thecommontable.eu/food-design-...
9 months ago
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We need to talk about Food Design.
thecommontable.eu/food-design-...
9 months ago
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“What if the settlers had arrived and had agreed to coexist instead? I wonder if we would have had a robust, very cool food culture by now. Because they were so hell-bent on disappearing us, we never got that cross-cultural exchange and an evolution of what American food truly could have been.”
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The Good Life — The Common Table
Anishinaabe Algonquin filmmaker Cass Gardiner talks to The Common Table about how she uses food as a window for non-Native people into her world and community.
https://thecommontable.eu/the-good-life/
11 months ago
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“One day, while watching them, I thought: what if these birds could cooperate and create their own alphabet?” A multi species food alphabet by @curly_mads.
thecommontable.eu/wild-birds-f...
#thecommontable
#curlymads
#wildbirds
#wildbirdsalphabet
#pictoplasma
#foodalphabet
#risoprint
12 months ago
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“Every morning, I visit a large urban park near my home to watch birds.” artist @curly_mads tells the story of herWild Birds Food Alphabet.
thecommontable.eu/wild-birds-f...
Wild Birds Food Alphabet — The Common Table
#thecommontable
#curlymads
#wildbirds
#foodalphabet
#pictoplasma
12 months ago
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We invited Systems Change Designer Ashley Scarborough to The Common Table to share how she redesigned her own professional path and found food systems as her medium.
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Change The (Design) System — The Common Table
A conversation with Systems Change Designer Ashley Scarborough about how she redesigned her own professional path and found food systems as her medium.
https://thecommontable.eu/change-the-design-system/
12 months ago
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Adjust your preconceptions about Food Design by joining the Oxford Food Symposium Kitchen Table panel talk online with the founders of The Common Table and others here tomorrow May 13th 6pm CEST on Zoom
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We need to talk about 'Food Design': What is it and can it improve our relationships with food, individually or on a global scale? - Oxford Food Symposium
Agriculturalists, economists, chefs, politicians & policy makers, and educationalists & educators have ‘solutions’ relating to improving the food system. Unfortunately, many have fallen flat, and we c...
https://www.oxfordsymposium.org.uk/event/kitchen-table-may2025/
about 1 year ago
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If you want to understand how we ended up in this mess, you go to an expert. The Common Table talked to political economist
@jennifer-clapp.bsky.social
about her banging new book: "Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why It Matters".
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A Game Of Monopoly — The Common Table
We talk to Canadian political economist Jennifer Clapp about her latest book, “Titans of Industrial Agriculture” and the evolution of an extreme concentration of power that has allowed 12 companies to...
https://thecommontable.eu/a-game-of-monopoly/
about 1 year ago
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Just as we understand individual ingredients, like apples or crisps, to be expressions of systems, The Common Table is an expression of a system initiated by studio_lovell. It is designed to be a hospitable space for learning to ask better questions.
about 1 year ago
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The Common Table's founders studio_lovell were invited to co-design an immersive dining experience and give a keynote at the
#HotelschoolTheHague
for their Future of Food course in Amsterdam. We talked about learning to ask better questions & understanding ingredients as expressions of systems.
about 1 year ago
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Now more than ever it is so important to question the narratives we are fed. Our interview with Fabio Aranzulla and Luca Cinquemani aka Aterraterra, whose interdisciplinary work questions accepted narratives within agriculture and food cultures, just went online. We'd love to hear your feedback.
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Ancient Grains And Other Myths — The Common Table
The interdisciplinary work of Aterraterra intersects artistic and agricultural practices and questions accepted narratives within agriculture and food cultures.
https://thecommontable.eu/ancient-grains-and-other-myths/
over 1 year ago
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Another agreeable Monday morning provocation 🍄
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Scientists just created a biodegradable battery using mushrooms — and it actually works
Researchers have created a fungal battery that can power small sensors, showcasing the untapped power of the fungal community.
https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/fungal-battery-empa-switzerland/
over 1 year ago
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An enjoyable Monday morning provocation
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over 1 year ago
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Game changer?
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UK soil breakthrough could cut farm fertiliser use and advance sustainable agriculture
Research group says discovery could lead to new type of environmentally friendly farming
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/22/uk-soil-breakthrough-could-cut-farm-fertiliser-use-and-advance-sustainable-agriculture?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
over 1 year ago
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Reading list
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over 1 year ago
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Food systems are emerging as a new focus of investigative cultural practice. The Common Table talked to curator and researcher Meriç Öner, former Director at Salt in Istanbul, who brings a unique perspective to the intersection of food, culture and art.
thecommontable.eu/foods-capaci...
over 1 year ago
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The Oxford Real Farming Conference 2025 sessions are now online for everybody. There were some amazing talks. Well worth listening in, particularly Unpicking Food & Farming Misinformation, Is a Fossil-free Food System Possible and Roots of Resistance. 🌱🥬🌾💚
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ORFC Archive
Explore conference material that we have gathered over the years including videos, presentations and summaries of the sessions…
https://orfc.org.uk/orfc-archives/
over 1 year ago
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Seed sovereignty is a vital issue.
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over 1 year ago
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Embracing food thinking not only facilitates an accessible, inclusive path to understanding and nurturing thriving ecologies by building and maintaining healthy relationships, it is essential to survival.
over 1 year ago
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Food is everything
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over 1 year ago
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What if there was a more inclusive way to approach the design process than “design thinking”? One that is based, not on “things” or “problems” but on building and maintaining healthy relationships instead? 1/3
thecommontable.eu/food-thinking/
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over 1 year ago
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We love beans
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over 1 year ago
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New newsletter just dropped at The Common Table. Sign up if you would like to receive the next one.
thecommontable.eu/newsletter/
over 1 year ago
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reposted by
The Common Table
Leon Simons
over 1 year ago
Main finding: 'Global warming for 0.5 W/m² ship forcing today is 0.2°C' The vast majority of the decrease in reflected sunlight, increase in Absorbed Solar Radiation and additional warming occurs over the Northern Hemisphere, where most of us live and will be affected!
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A timely conversation with Food Studies professor Fabio Parasecoli on gastronativism (the “ideological use of food in politics to advance ideas about who belongs to a community”) the weaponising of food in politics and systemic thinking in a design context.
thecommontable.eu/gastronativi...
over 1 year ago
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We had a chat with Food Studies professor
@fparasecoli.bsky.social
about gastronativism (the “ideological use of food in politics to advance ideas about who belongs to a community”) and it turned into a fascinating conversation about “us”, “them”, food, politics, and systemic thinking. Have a read!
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Gastronativism: Us & Them — The Common Table
Food Studies professor Fabio Parasecoli on gastronativism. A conversation about "us", "them", food, politics and systemic thinking.
https://thecommontable.eu/gastronativism-us-and-them/
over 1 year ago
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“We use huge amounts of land for the cultivation of commodities we actually need less of, like sugar beet and maize, which, while profitable, are often not used to nourish our communities.”
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over 1 year ago
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Timely read
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over 1 year ago
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“The old world is dying, and the new world is struggling to be born. Now is the time of monsters.” Antonio Gramsci Little monster by
@aetherelf.bsky.social
over 1 year ago
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reposted by
The Common Table
Nathan Nelson
over 1 year ago
Also worth mentioning (sorry if you're already aware)
@adamcalo.bsky.social
has a substack on land reform
adamcalo.substack.com
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Land Food Nexus | Adam Calo | Substack
To change food, change land. Click to read Land Food Nexus, by Adam Calo, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
https://adamcalo.substack.com/
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reposted by
The Common Table
TheBlindboyPodcast
over 1 year ago
How is this possible? Who cares if there's "lack of public support". A completely unique 6000 year old site that provides evidence of early farming technology, right now when the climate is collapsing? How is that not interesting? Protect the fucker
www.independent.ie/irish-news/c...
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Céide Fields ditched as possible World Heritage Site ‘due to lack of public support’
The Céide Fields, one of the most important and extensive Stone Age monuments in the world, was ditched as a possible World Heritage Site due to a “lack of public support”.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/ceide-fields-ditched-as-possible-world-heritage-site-due-to-lack-of-public-support/a2008703104.html
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Someone should make a Koyaanisquatsi-like film following the path of an individual ingredient in the global food chain. No words, just the journey and the animals, people and places along the way.
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cine experimental / Koyaanisqatsi / (1982)
YouTube video by San Isidro Cine Club
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6-K-arVl-U
over 1 year ago
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What do you think are the right policy supports to help this transition for farmers and people in the food industry? asks
@tabledebates.bsky.social
Matthew Kessler of regenerative food systems expert Rupert Simons
@systemiq.bsky.social
Oxford Real Farmers Conference
#ORFC25
over 1 year ago
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Loving this discussion. What do you think are the right policy supports to help this transition? asks
@tabledebates.bsky.social
Matthew Kessler of agroecologist and agricultural biodiversity expert Emile Frison
@ipes-food.org
Oxford Real Farmers Conference
#ORFC25
over 1 year ago
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What do we need to do right now to move toward a fossil-fuel-free system?
@tabledebates.bsky.social
's Matthew Kessler asks farmer Helen Browning
@thesoilassociation.bsky.social
Oxford Real Farmers Conference
#ORFC25
over 1 year ago
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Is a Fossil-Free Food System Possible? What might an agroecological food system look like in practice? Oxford Real Farmers Conference
#ORFC25
panel from
@tabledebates.bsky.social
's Matthew Kessler with Rupert simons, Emile Frison
@ipes-food.org
and Helen Browning
@thesoilassociation.bsky.social
over 1 year ago
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Two devastating sentences stuck in our heads from yesterday's day 1 of the
#ORFC25
spoken by agroecologist George McAllister about the destruction of land and farming in Gaza.
rooted-magazine.org/2024/08/01/w...
over 1 year ago
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"From Ubuntu to Kapwa: Earth Wisdom and Regenerative Design in Food Systems". The moving close to day one of
#ORFC25
with Sonita Mbah, Konkankoh Joshua, Mamerto Tindongan, Margarita Zethelius, Sarah Queblatin, Ati Seygundiba Quigua Izquierdo and Charlotte Dufour.
over 1 year ago
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