Carolyn Steel @ TED; Can our Sitopia be Gluten Free, please?
TED is a nonprofit that puts together conferences where the speakers talk about bold, challenging ideas. At the July 2009 event, they invited Ms. Carolyn Steel, author of Hungry City, to talk about how food shapes modern cities. It’s a fascinating presentation in which she walks through the history of modern cities, with a focus on London, and outlines how food has impacted the shape, size, and distribution of mankind.
Ms. Steel introduces the concept of a Sitopia, or “food place” - borrowing from Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, or “ideal place”, from his 16th century book. The sitopia she describes is a place where people live in concert with, and in full knowledge of the source and impact of their food. It flows well with the concepts of Michael Pollan, for those who have read his books as well.
She states,
[You] Can’t have it without people who think about food, who plan ahead. We need these people, they are part of a network. Without these kind of people we can’t have places like this [the sitopia].
Could that be what we, people who have CD, or who pursue the GFD, are? Like it or not, we think about food a lot. Much more than the average individual. And we are certainly part of a network - both our own networks as we share information on food, and as part of the non-GFD communities in which we participate every day. All our colleagues know that we are food sensitive. We are the de facto food experts in any gathering.
Sitopia already exists in little pockets everywhere. The trick is to join them up.
We couldn’t agree more.
We can use food as a really powerful tool to make the world better.
Thanks again, Ms. Steel - these are the kind of bold, challenging, ideas, that we like to hear.
GF Food, GF Thoughts, Science of GF
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Author, Book, Carolyn Steel, Food, Gluten, Sitopia, TED, Video
[...] talked in the past about our love of TED and how many of its big picture talks can help us frame new ways of thinking about the gluten free [...]