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

At MAD7, climate activist and imagination catalyst Rob Hopkins stepped on stage in a spacesuit and asked us to time travel. Not to escape, but to dream. To imagine a distant utopia, not a dystopian warning. Together, we saw a 2030 within reach: greener cities, bicycle rush hours, shared meals, restored soil, more joy. 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 in their restaurants, their communities, and across the 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.

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.

This talk is part of the MAD Monday event on cities, soil, and the true value of food in Copenhagen on October 31, 2019. Typically convening on Mondays, the traditional day of rest for restaurants, MAD Monday is a conversation series that tackles the issues that matter most in food, inviting anyone interested in food and hospitality to gather, expand their thinking, and discuss issues of relevance.

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.

This talk is part of the MAD Monday event on cities, soil, and the true value of food in Copenhagen on October 31, 2019. Typically convening on Mondays, the traditional day of rest for restaurants, MAD Monday is a conversation series that tackles the issues that matter most in food, inviting anyone interested in food and hospitality to gather, expand their thinking, and discuss issues of relevance.

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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.

This talk is part of the MAD Monday event on cities, soil, and the true value of food in Copenhagen on October 31, 2019. Typically convening on Mondays, the traditional day of rest for restaurants, MAD Monday is a conversation series that tackles the issues that matter most in food, inviting anyone interested in food and hospitality to gather, expand their thinking, and discuss issues of relevance.

To keep up to date, please sign up for our newsletter: https://www.madfeed.co/

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.

Preserving Identity Through Coffee Traceability | Arthur Karuletwa

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 | Chad Frischmann

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.

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 in their restaurants, their communities, and across the world.

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.

Watch all videos from the Indigenous Foodways Sydney MAD Monday on MAD's vimeo and youtube channels.

This talk was made possible by Carriageworks and Kylie Kwong. A huge thank you to our partners!

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.

Working With the Family | J.Téllez & R.Magaña

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.

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.

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.

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.