Talking about food

The TED Talks go edible

By Culinate staff

July 19, 2012

Earlier this month, the New Yorker ran an article by Nathan Heller on the TED phenomenon — that is, the juggernaut of popular, inspirational, provocative mini-lectures known as TED Talks that, according to the article, have been viewed more than 800 million times online. The TED conference, if you didn’t already know, has a spinoff conference series called TEDx. And, for a couple of years, it ran a food-focused conference called Taste3.

The TED website has a tag page for food-related talks; here you can find Lunch Lady Ann Cooper talking about school-lunch reform, Michael Pollan discussing the plant's view of the world, Mark Bittman explaining exactly what's wrong with our food system, and chef Dan Barber talking about both foie gras and fish. (Many of these videos, of course, have been reposted on YouTube; this is also the best place to hunt down TEDx videos, including Nicolette Hahn Niman’s talk about farming.)

Other curators have picked their foodie faves from the TED lineup, including the Huffington Post, Indiana Public Media, and OnlineClasses.org. If you’re interested in insects, pigs, mushrooms, spaghetti sauce — even sustainable refrigerators — check ‘em out.