Culture After Covid: Food Fight

Edge Definition

Food is the new battleground. The meat industry is taking on plant-based alternatives to restrict what gets labeled an actual “burger.” On-demand delivery services are challenging in-restaurant experiences. And robots are stealing human fast-food jobs. Food has become a moral issue and new brands are being born with campaigning in their DNA. As innovation challenges convention, we’re fighting to preserve the humanity in food.

What will Food Fight look like post-pandemic?

Pre-COVID, food was fetishized.

We chased camera-ready #foodporn. Food blogs and review forums empowered everyone to become a critic. And you were only as interesting as the latest organic, CBD-infused, artisanal fusion food on your plate.

Food became unnecessarily competitive and increasingly complex.

But the pandemic brought food back to basics—reminding us of the essential role it plays in our lives. We began cooking more, wasting less, valuing nutrition over aesthetics, and educating ourselves about the impact of our consumption.

The next Food Fight will be a battle to end elitism. We’ll confront food snobbery and work together to solve food insecurity. Family recipes will be traded over restaurant recommendations. And we’ll reconnect with the people and cultures that have fed us for generations.

It’s time we take the fuss out of food.