Environment & Sustainability

Yvon Chouinard in Conversation with Lisa Abend

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 15:00:56 GMT

In conversation with Lisa Abend, Yvon Chouinard shares how starting as a blacksmith making climbing tools led to building a company guided by values over profit. He describes hitting $1 billion as the worst day of his life.

After 50 years in business, Chouinard champions purposeful growth over endless expansion. Patagonia is now steward-owned, and the earth is their only shareholder. They've donated over $100 million in excess profit to environmental causes.

Their conversation covers everything from corporate responsibility to table salt.

Chinampas are the Future

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 13:05:05 GMT

Pablo Usobiaga of Arca Tierra believes the future lies in the past.

He works directly campesinos—peasant farmers—to recover Mexico’s 4,000-year-old chinampas: floating gardens that once fed 1.5 million people. Today, less than 10% of them survive.

Campesinos are their custodians. Some of society’s most overlooked workers, campesinos are in fact on the frontlines of our climate crisis. As Pablo explains, they are guardians of critical knowledge. Learning from them is how we’ll walk ourselves back from the ecological cliff.

Leading with Generosity

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 13:21:09 GMT

Chef Josh Niland is rewriting the rules of whole-fish cooking at Sydney’s Saint Peter and Fish Butchery—turning every scale, bone, and organ into something extraordinary.

Before his MAD talk, he broke down a fish with the noma team—but his real lesson was about leadership: generosity, space for creativity, and knowing what sparks each person on your team.

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.

Looking at Nature with Appetite

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 19:15:47 GMT

Ángel León known across Spain as "el Chef del Mar", believes the ocean holds answers we haven't thought to ask for.

He transformed a 200-year-old abandoned mill into Aponiente, his three-Michelin-starred laboratory in Cádiz, proving the future of food may lie below the surface.

We’re only eating a small portion of what the sea has to offer. That’s why León works with the unwanted parts of the fish—the cuts and species that typically get discarded.

He’s developed the world’s first omega-3 rich grain that grows entirely in seawater, marine soybeans with higher protein content than their terrestrial cousins, and techniques for transforming discarded moray eel into dishes so convincing you’d swear you were eating pork.

By 2026, he plans to open a two-hectare estuary where guests will eat live fish and mollusks pulled directly from the water. His philosophy: look at the ocean “with hunger,” seeing every element as potential nourishment rather than waste.

Translation by Pablo Soto Rodriguez Gil

The Future Library

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 13:12:42 GMT

In 2014, artist Katie Paterson planted 1,000 spruce trees in Norway's Nordmarka forest and asked the world a simple question: what if we created something meant to outlast us all?

Future Library is a century-spanning artwork where each year until 2114, a celebrated writer contributes a manuscript that won't be read until the trees become the paper.

Katie Paterson and Anne Beate Hovind share the logistics behind this temporal experiment: negotiating Oslo's first 100-year municipal contract, managing the anxiety of protecting trees across decades, and creating annual forest rituals built on mutual trust.

A Legacy Under Water

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 12:07:32 GMT

With a confidence most of us could only dream about when we were their age, the seventh-generation fishing guides told us about the threat that salmon farming poses to their family tradition, their river, and the wild species itself. Escaped fish weakening wild populations, sea lice spreading rapidly, antibiotics and pesticides building up in fish fat.

Their message to the chefs in the audience was crystal clear: stop serving sea farmed salmon.

How Can We Be Good Ancestors?

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 07:00:00 GMT

When philosopher Roman Krznaric voted in a UK election, he handed his ballot to his kids. Their futures hang on today's decisions way more than his does.

In his talk at MAD7, based on his book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, Krznaric argues we've colonized the future. We're using it as a dumping ground for problems we can't (or won't) solve.

But what if we thought like ancestors instead?

Drawing on cathedral builders, Victorian engineers, and Indigenous traditions of long-term thinking, he asks us to stretch our imaginations past the next quarter, the next election, or even the next generation…

How to Fall in Love with a Delicious Future

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 07:00:00 GMT

Climate activist and imagination catalyst Rob Hopkins walked on stage in a spacesuit and asked us to time travel. Not to escape, but to dream.

He wanted us to imagine a distant utopia instead of another dystopian warning. Together, we pictured a 2030 within reach: greener cities, bicycle rush hours, shared meals, restored soil, more joy.

His new book, How to Fall in Love with the Future, argues that hope works better than despair. The future doesn't arrive fully formed. We build it, story by story, meal by meal.

S1E1 - Magnus Nilsson & Moose Fondue

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Magnus Nilsson is a chef and author who earned two Michelin stars and many other accolades for his ground-breaking restaurant in northern Sweden, Fäviken. After speaking at the inaugural MAD Symposium in 2011, Nilsson joins Redzepi once again to reflect on the experiences of opening and closing that restaurant, and the unexpected turns his career has taken since. And like all guests on MAD Talks, he explores what building to last—the theme of the next MAD Symposium—means to him.

What is a Good Life?

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMT

For British architect, Carolyn Steel, the question of how we want to eat in the future is really a question of how we want to live. Food has become invisible in our cities, but it hasn’t always been and doesn’t have to remain this way. Using food as a lens, she takes us on a journey to understand the myriad ways in which food has shaped the cities and societies we live in, and how, in accepting the true value of food, we do away with the illusion of “cheap food” and play an active role in the food system.

Restore the Soil and Feed Tomorrow

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMT

We’ve lost a third of the world’s fertile soil and are slated to lose another third in the next century–this is an optimistic story about the environment. Geologist David Montgomery shares his life’s research and insights into soil, from its role in the foundation of our civilizations down to the microbes that live in it and how regenerative agriculture can save the food world of tomorrow.

Get On Your Knees (and Bring Gastronomy with You)

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMT

As chef Christian Puglisi’s restaurant community, Relæ, in Copenhagen expanded, he realized he should not be growing out, but growing deeper. So he started the Farm of Ideas to grow his own produce. At this MAD Monday, he recounts how his experience starting the farm led him to face the high cost of producing food and impacted how he values it.

It's up to restaurants, up to chefs, he believes, to get down on their knees and understand their produce because they have a unique responsibility to help people understand the true value of food and redefine what gastronomy is in the process.

Leaders are the Glue, Not the Light

Sat, 14 Dec 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Clarence Slockee and Christian Hampson run Yerrabingin (We Walk Together), Australia’s first Indigenous rooftop farm that interweaves indigenous knowledge and collaborative design thinking in South Eveleigh, Sydney.

Here they share their insights on how Indigenous values of collective wisdom, kinship (relationships to each other), and custodianship (responsibility to our mother earth) inform the matriarchal model of leadership in Indigenous cultures, and are key for transformational change. Placing this in stark contrast to patriarchal, top-down, forms of leadership, they suggest that “Leadership must be a voice, but also give a voice.”

This talk is part of the Sydney MAD Monday event on Leadership, 4 November 2019. Sydney MAD Mondays is a collaboration between Carriageworks, MAD, and Kylie Kwong that brings together voices from across the Australian food community for talks on what leadership looks like in our changing world. MAD Mondays are open to the public and held throughout the year and around the globe.

Resilient Restaurants

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Josh Niland, Chef and Owner of Saint Peter restaurant and Fish Butchery, shares the stories of resilience behind his restaurant’s success at Sydney MAD Monday.

The philosophy behind his restaurants is the respect for the product and the fishermen that work hard to provide the most sustainable produce to work with. At Fish Butchery they have developed a recipe for nearly every part of the fish, which helps them to cut costs. With this lesson, Josh stresses the importance of educating the new wave of chefs at working without loss and food waste. Moreover, he points out that the life of a chef is filled with ups and downs and resilience is the only way to reach your goals.

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.

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.

Preserving Identity Through Coffee Traceability

Fri, 30 Nov 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Arthur Karuletwa is a native of Rwanda, but lived as a refugee in Uganda and Kenya in the 1990's. Today, he sees coffee as a source of healing and empowerment, and has developed a program to trace coffee beans from the point of origin through the supply chain.

In surviving the horrific genocide of his people and murder of his family, Karuletwa was stripped of his identity. As a immigrant in America, he has dedicated his life to preserving the identity of others. Waging a war on poverty through agriculture and traceability, Karuletwa points to our food and drink as a reflection of our identity and culture, something we must understand to better act as agents of global development.

How To Reverse Climate Change

Thu, 25 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Chad Frischmann is the Vice President & Research Director at Project Drawdown, where he leads the Drawdown Coalition, Senior Research Team, and Fellowship Programs. Drawdown uses information from multiple fields to propose actionable solutions to reverse global warming.

At the sixth MAD Symposium, Chad delves into the frameworks and purpose around Project Drawdown. Revealing the impact that our food industry, agriculture, and production has on the climate, Chad urges the MAD community to look at how we can change our food and restaurant systems to change our climate.

How to Meet Demand for Australian Bushfoods

Sat, 09 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

This discussion 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.

A range of speakers reflected on the growing demand for Indigenous Australian ingredients in restaurants across the country. What role can restaurants play in shaping the ways this demand is met?

The conversation was moderated by Caroline Baum, an Australian journalist, author and broadcaster. Palisa Anderson of 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. Gayle Quarmby of Outback Pride Project, the largest bushfood-growing organisation in Australia, shared how her company provides opportunities for remote Aboriginal communities to access an industry where their traditional knowledge is valued. Elder Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison, an initiated Yuin man and the knowledge holder and teacher of the guides at Ngaran Ngaran Culture Awareness shared his understandings of sacredness and the land. A member of the Birri-Gubba People and the Yugambeh language group, novelist and scholar Nicole Watson of the University of Sydney Law School reflected on the national narratives of Australia and engaged us in telling new stories about Australia.

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.

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.

Tomorrow's Kitchen Starts on the Farm

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Carlo Petrini is a food activist born in the province of Cuneo in Italy. He is the founder of the International Slow Food Movement. In the 1980s he first came to prominence for taking part in a campaign against the fast-food chain McDonald's opening near the Spanish Steps in Rome.

Working With the Family

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Head chef Téllez and Magaña, chef de cuisine, from restaurant Laja in Ensenada, Mexico. Situated in the beautiful Valle de Guadalupe in Baja California, Laja is a remarkable destination restaurant which pays homage to the surrounding countryside. Laja's home is a stone barn-like building, which was constructed from scratch by Télles and a team of craftsmen (many of whom went on to work in the restaurant itself). It is surrounded by its own orchard, fields, and vineyard, whose harvests are supplemented by local organic farmers and fishermen.

How Will Future Food Systems Differ?

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Hans Herren was appointed president of the Millennium Institute in May 2005. Prior to this, he was director-general of the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi, Kenya. He also served as director of the Africa Biological Control Centre of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in Benin.

At IITA, he conceived and implemented the highly successful biological control program that saved the African cassava crop and averted Africa’s worst-ever food crisis.

Over the years, Hans has moved his interests toward integrated sustainable development, in particular, linking environmental, plant, animal, and human health issues.

Hans earned his Ph.D. at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, and holds numerous awards that recognise his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research including election to the US National Academy of Sciences and the World Food Prize, the highest award given to an individual for advancing human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world.

A Future Without Waste

Mon, 08 Jun 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Ida Auken is MP for the Danish party Radikale Venstre and the former Minister of the Enviroment. She has written extensively about sustainability, climate changes, and circular economy in the Guardian.

In this video from the MAD Monday “Trash or Treasure,” she speaks to an audience of chefs, farmers, and writers about creating a future without waste.

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.

Urban Food Systems

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Thomas Harttung is an organic farmer and forester at Barritskov Farm in Denmark, since 1984. In 1996, he founded Barritskov Vegetable Garden, which in 1999 was converted to Aarstiderne in collaboration with Soren Ejlersen.

This company, which delivers organic fruit, vegetables and grocery products directly to homes and businesses in Denmark, Sweden and Germany revolutionised the way people buy organic produce.

In 2005, Thomas also founded BlackCarbon and GreenCarbon in order to address the complex interface between environmental sustainability, food security and climate change.

Time Magazine named him one of the Heroes of the Environment in 2009.

Copenhagen is Buzzing: Bees, Cities & Our Common Future

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Jacqueline McGlade is a leading marine biologist and environmental informatics professor. Her research focuses on the spatial and nonlinear dynamics of ecosystems, climate change and scenario development.

Jacqueline became Executive Director of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen, Denmark on 01 June 2003 and has held that post since. Following this appointment, she took leave from her post as Professor of Environmental Informatics in the Department of Mathematics at University College London where her main areas of research included environmental technologies and the international politics of the environment and natural resources.

Jacqueline has worked extensively in North America, south-east Asia and west Africa; she has published more than 100 research papers, written popular articles, presented and appeared in many radio and television programmes, including her own BBC series the Ocean Planet and Learning from Nature.

Natural & Cultural Ecosystems

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Andoni Aduriz was born in Donostia and began his career in the kitchen of a pizzeria, where he worked during school holidays and at weekends.

After completing his studies at San Sebastian School of Cuisine, he went on to learn under many of the local chefs including Ramón Roteta, Hilario Arbelaitz, Jean Louis Neichel, Juan Mari Arzak, Fermín Arrambide and Pedro Subijana before spending the 1993-4 season at elBulli under Ferran Adriá. In 1996, he became head chef under Martín Berasategui at his eponymous restaurant back in San Sebastian.

Two years later, in 1998, he opened his own restaurant, Mugaritz, atop a hillside thirty minutes from the city, in the Basque countryside.

In 2002, Andoni was awarded the National Prize for Gastronomy and the Spanish guide lo Mejor de la Gastronomía named him both ‘Chef of the Year’ and ‘Patissier of the year.’ Since 2005 the Michelin guide have awarded him a two stars and he ranked 2nd best restaurant in the world in the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best list in 2011.

How Good Food Can Save Our Planet | Dr. Molly Jahn

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Molly Jahn is the dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to this, she was a professor in the departments of Plant Breeding & Genetics and Plant Biology at Cornell University. She has worked extensively overseas to link crop breeding with improved human nutrition and human welfare.

Molly has served as the U.S. Commissioner for Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change, USAID Scientific Liaison Officer and member of the board of The World Vegetable Centre, Director of the Public Seed Initiative and the Organic Seed Partnership, Member of the Editorial Board and Executive Committee of The Plant Cell and is currently a member of the National Academies of Science Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

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.

Ethical Food Futures

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a known British television personality, journalist, celebrity chef, food writer and “real food” campaigner.

Back-to-basics is Hugh’s philosophy. Hugh spent some time in Africa. When returning, he worked for a brief period as a sous-chef at River Café in London. He also commenced freelance journalism and was published in Punch, Evening Standard and The Sunday Times.

Hugh is best known for hosting the River Cottage series on the United Kingdom television broadcaster. Hugh feeds himself, his family and friends with locally produced and sourced fruits, vegetables, fish, eggs, and meat. He also filmed the series that explore sustainable fishing Fish Fight campaign and Chicken Out! Campaign, encouraging people to become more aware of food production.

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.

The Taste of Wheat | Dan Barber, Chef and Co-Owner of Blue Hill

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Dan Barber is a chef and co-owner of the Blue Hill restaurants in New York City and Tarrytown, New York. He received a B.A. in English at the Tufts University in 1992 and later studied at the French Culinary Institute.

He was won numerous James Beard Awards, was named one of Time‘s most influential people in 2009, and his writings on food and agricultural policy have appeared in the New York Times, Gourmet, The Nation, Saveur, and Food & Wine. Barber was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. He is also a member of the Advisory Board to the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and The Global Environment.

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.