Coalition-building: Notes on Session 4 of TED Countdown 2024 Dilemma Series

TED’s Nicole Ng and David Biello host at Session 4 of TED Countdown 2024 Dilemma Series: The future of food, at the TED World Theater in New York City on June 6, 2024. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Session 4 of the TED Countdown 2024 Dilemma Series was all about coalition-building. Four speakers discussed how we can bring together the world’s best minds and ideas to rethink how we support farms, nourish the youngest generations and collaborate across seeming divides.

The event: TED Countdown 2024 Dilemma Series: The future of food, hosted by TED’s David Biello and Nicole Ng

When and where: June 6, 2024 at the TED World Theater in New York City

Speakers: Anthony Myint, June Jo Lee, Gerardo Reyes Chávez, Jon Esformes

The talks in brief:

The transition to regenerative farming is vital but expensive — and farmers don’t have the resources to do it alone. Chef and Zero Foodprint cofounder Anthony Myint offers a plan that allows everyone to be a part of the solution: With just a few more cents on every food purchase at partnered establishments, we can raise millions for the farms that need it. “Almost all of us can afford to make this change, and the truth is, we can’t afford not to make it,” says Myint.

Exploring the profound meaning behind what we choose to eat, food ethnographer June Jo Lee unpacks how our “modern hungers,” or deep desires for self-improvement and connection, inform every bite. She decodes Gen Z’s spicy, rich and complex relationship with food — and what it means for the future of gastronomy.

Farm labor is hot, back-breaking and dangerous work. To protect workers from deadly heat and workplace exploitation, farmworker Gerardo Reyes Chávez and farm manager Jon Esformes have teamed up to help advance the human rights enforcement program Fair Food Program (FFP). Their collaborative model is a blueprint for how to create more modern, humane working conditions for the world’s laborers.

At the end of the session, attendees were invited to reflect on the two-day event, sharing which ideas they’ll take forward and how they’re seeing the state of food through new eyes.