Foraging

The Art of Staying Engaged

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 07:43:03 GMT

At the age of seven, Chido Govera was left orphaned, caring for her grandmother and little brother in rural Zimbabwe. At ten, she refused an arranged marriage—choosing instead a path that took her from foraging for survival to building something extraordinary.

The Future of Hope Foundation has now transformed over 10,000 households in Zimbabwe and beyond through mushroom farming. What started with learning to grow oyster mushrooms from corn stalks has become a movement rooted in Ubuntu philosophy—“I am because we are”—where communities solve their own problems with the right knowledge and support.

Everytime she speaks with MAD, Chido shows us the power of working “one mushroom at a time”—turning complex agricultural science into something rural communities can master themselves. Sometimes the most radical act is simply believing people are capable of more than their circumstances suggest.

Rediscovering Food Through Resilience

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Indira Naidoo, journalist, broadcaster, author and food activist, tells the story of her journey from news reading to finding meaning through growing vegetables and turning her balcony into an edible pantry.

This talk is part of the Sydney MAD Monday event on Resilience, July 16, 2018. Sydney MAD Mondays is a collaboration between Carriageworks, MAD and Kylie Kwong, and brings together voices from across the Australian food community for talks on the role today’s restaurants play in taking care of the environment.

Migration, Family, and Farming

Sat, 09 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Palisa Anderson, director of Sydney restaurant Chat Thai and first generation farmer of Boon Luck Farm, shared stories from her childhood, as well as her farming practices and approach to utilizing sustainable Indigenous ingredients in her cooking.

This talk is part of the Sydney MAD Monday event on Indigenous Foodways, April 16 2018. Sydney MAD Mondays is a collaboration between Carriageworks, MAD and Kylie Kwong, and brings together voices from across the Australian food community for talks on the role today’s restaurants play in taking care of the environment.

Indigenous Australian Bushfoods

Sat, 09 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Gayle Quarmby of Outback Pride Project, the largest bushfood-growing organisation in Australia, shares how her company provides opportunities for remote Aboriginal communities to access an industry where their traditional knowledge is valued.

Respect For the Sacred Land

Wed, 06 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Indigenous Australian Elder Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison, an initiated Yuin man and the knowledge holder and teacher of the guides at Ngaran Ngaran Culture Awareness, shares his understandings of sacredness and the land.

The Full Cycle of Restaurant Amass

Mon, 08 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMT

In this video from our latest MAD Monday, which had “Trash or Treasure” as its theme, the rising star chef Matt Orlando, of Copenhagen’s Amass, discusses how you can create a sustainable ecosystem to feed your restaurant, as well as find delicious flavors in items you would normally throw in the bin.

“I used to think that everything that came out of a greenhouse didn’t taste good,” says Orlando. But his opinion changed as he was figuring out what to do with the expansive plot of land his restaurant sits on. In those early months, he started discovering innovative ways to deal with compost and grow much of the menu’s products right out the front door. As Orlando explains, a clever “worm hotel” is one of the most important engineers of this ecosystem.

Food Production Fosters Sustainable Development

Thu, 14 May 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Chido Govera, a citizen of Zimbabwe, is a Social Entrepreneur and founder of The Future of Hope Foundation. Through her foundation, Chido fulfills her commitment to ending poverty, abuse, self-pity and victimhood at grassroots level in Africa through food security.

Wild Plants & Culinary Creativity

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

François Couplan is an ethnobotanist and French writer, specialising in traditional uses of wild and cultivated plants, which he has studied on five continents.

A graduate of the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, knight of the Ordre du Mérite Agricole and holder of a doctorate of the Muséum National d'histoire Naturelle of Paris, he has given workshops on the study of wildlife since the seventies in first the United States then Europe. It was his work with French chef Marc Veyrat that inspired him to work more closely with edible plants.

Francois has gone on to author over fifty published books on plants and nature including two encyclopaedias on edible flora plus some 600 articles in various magazines. He has also created l'Institut de Recherches sur les Propriétés de la Flore (France and Switzerland).

Beyond the Animal Model

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Stefano Mancuso is a founder of the study of plant neurobiology, which explores signalling and communication at all levels of biological organization, from genetics to molecules, cells and ecological communities.

He is a professor of Plant, Soil & Environmental Science at the University of Florence, Italy and co-founder of the LINV (the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology).

The work of Stefano and his team continues to transform our view of plants from simple organisms to complex ecological structures and communities that can gather, process and share important information.

Wild Flavours of England

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Miles Irving makes his living out of foraging and supplies of wild food to the restaurant trade. He is one of Europe’s most respected professional foragers.

A psychology graduate and carpenter by trade, Miles has been foraging for almost ten years. He now runs a small, but energetic rural enterprise called Forager and is the author of the Forager Handbook.

GO WILD! | Roland Rittman

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Roland Rittman is the forager that transformed Restaurant Noma. In this speech from the MAD 3 Symposium, he explains the need for people to reconnect with nature in the modern world.

About MAD:

MAD is a non-profit transforming our food system by giving chefs and restaurateurs the skills, community, time, and space to create real and sustainable change.