By Talon McKee
One food has made its presence known throughout the world and throughout time, it is a staple of life and an ancestral crop. This all important food is commonly known as bread. It’s one of the first domesticated crops of our ancestors and has been an important part of life from centuries ago to current times. But what importance does a crop such as bread have on the need to feed the world? Louise Fresco offers an interesting approach at presenting the topic of feeding the world. She starts out by immediately showing the many ingredients of bread laid out on a table in front of her, and she also shows a loaf of bread that she has prepared and that is cooking on stage while she is presenting. Fresco offers a real sense of connectedness to the audience from the beginning; she immediately draws the audience’s attention into the world of bread. But still why bread? Fresco has chosen bread as an example to facilitate the explanation of changing times and problems and solutions associated with feeding the world.
To begin, Fresco shows two loafs of bread; the first is a homemade loaf that looks delicious and the second is a loaf of wonder bread that looks extra processed. Fresco asks the audience which bread looks more appeasing; all but two hands supported the homemade loaf. This was interesting to start with because she sets the audience up to pick the intended loaf of bread she wanted. She continues to discuss what makes the appeal of the homemade bread, and why people choose it over processed bread. But after this she then goes on to mention what accomplishments processed bread represents. Fresco shows the audience that bread has become an available and cheap product that anyone can purchase the world over. This is key to being able to provide food for the world. If we are able to produce large quantities of food with minimal work and less expense then it allows for more availability; this is only possible because of the development of technology to facilitate these operations. She shows that if large production was not present then bread would not be as affordable or cheap and people would be limited to what they could grow or what their neighbors could grow; no importation of goods.
But Fresco also shows what problems major corporations pose to the environment and small farmers; these problems consisting of pollution, habitat destruction and monopoly. Fresco guides the audience from here into her proposed ideas of sustainable food for everyone the world over. She maintains the audience’s interest with relatable stories/scenarios while also tying the connection to bread while she continues to prepare bread from scratch.
Her main point is that there needs to improved technology for agriculture that is not harming to the environment. And also that food needs to be supported regionally note nationally with integrated farming. What she means by this is that there is so much potential in everyday life for integrated farming which would be the use of bus tops, building tops, parking lots, and etc. for production of food. She proposes that if this was successfully performed world hunger could cease and food would thrive.
She ends her discussion by passing out her handmade cooked bread to the audience. She invites them to realize the interconnectedness the bread represents and that past and present are represented by that piece of bread. She leaves the audience with a challenge to press their home towns for integrated farming.
I found this presentation to be very informative and very intriguing. Fresco manages to keep your attention through the duration of the presentation with interesting and relatable material. At the same time she is able to present her information in a collective and informative matter. She really succeeds in provoking the audience for action and leaves them all with a challenge. I feel that this is the proper way to present information to have a good effect on the audience and to have your ideas last. Bread was a great medium to express her intended thoughts and I applaud the creativity involved.
slccfood 