SXSW: The Sustainable Food and Tech Moment Has Arrived
By Zachary Adam Cohen on March 17, 2009 – 3 Comments
So here I am watching Tweetdeck all morning, and I receive a tweet from Whole Foods, letting me know there is a hashtag for the sustainable food and tech discussion going on at SXSW. That hashtag is #savefood. I’ve been following the conversation. And it is a tremendous moment. Now I am always skeptical about defining things as “moments.” It seems pretentious, and boring, and self-righteous. Frankly, I am surprised I haven’t declared more moments!
These are some of the things I have learned from 25 minutes of browsing the #savefood hashtag.
- There is a call to organize a national farmer’s market list online, of which there is currently not a single source.
- There is an iPhone App from the Monterey Bay Aquarium (can be found here) called Seafood Watch, which allows people to see if the fish they are buying at a market or eating in a restaurant is over-fished or whether it is “clean”
- (Actual Tweet) One more time I’d like to mention farmfresh.org for finding farmers markets in south eastern new england #savefood
- (Actual Tweet) RT @vanmarkets: Myth: affluent suburbans drive local food movement. Actually it’s lower income urban/rural. #savefood #sxsw
- and perhaps my favorite… OMG, now they’re passing around chocolate. Taza from Austin. So freaking good. #savefood #sxsw
The Seafood Watch app looks awesome. You can enter your region (Northeast, West Coast, etc.) and it tells you which seafood is “Best Choice,” “Alternative,” or “Avoid.” For example, Atlantic Cod is an “Avoid” while Pacific Cod is a “Best Choice.” It also offers a “chart of alternatives” — so if you are using recipe that calls for seafood on the “avoid” list, it offers a comparable alternative that is a better, more sustainable choice. Looking forward to exploring the app more!
Really interesting to see things coming together in this space.
Correction: Taza is based in lovely Somerville, MA — http://www.tazachocolate.com/
Your coverage was so awesome I thought you were there!
Yay for twitter.
I suspect you already know about the Sustainable Food 2.0 panel’s wiki from Twitter, but just in case: http://www.savefood.wikispaces.com is a space we’re established to keep tabs on all the stuff that’s launching.