Foodprint NYC

Just a quick reminder that the first Foodprint Project event, Foodprint NYC, is taking place tomorrow, blizzard, snow hurricane, or (unlikely) shine.

IMAGE: The Foodprint NYC logo, designed by superstar illustrator and graphic designer Nikki Hiatt.

We’ll be at Studio-X (180 Varick St., Suite 1610 – map) from 12:30 p.m., so do arrive early to grab a seat. We’re recording the day’s conversations to make a podcast for download on Columbia University’s iTunesU channel; we’re also hoping to broadcast it live on Ustream if we can get our technological acts together.

The event will run from 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and I couldn’t be more excited about the day’s schedule and the panelists who’ve agreed to share their insights with us. Their bios and more schedule details are available online at the Foodprint Project site.

I’ll be moderating the first panel, Zoning Diet, in which panelists Sean Basinski, Joel Berg, Nevin Cohen, and Stanley Fleishman will take us behind the scenes of New York City’s various food systems. We’ll be talking about everything from bodega supply chains and where street vendor carts park at night to the infrastructure of soup kitchens and Food NYC, the city’s new food policy blueprint.

During the second panel, Culinary Cartography, cultural anthropologist Makale Faber Cullen, sociomedical researcher Naa Oyo Kwate, urban design journalist and micro-distiller David Haskell, and Jonathan Bogarin, a teaching artist at the Center for Urban Pedagogy, will tell us what patterns they see when they look at New York City through the lens of food.

What sorts of things can you learn when you map New York City in terms of its fried chicken restaurants, community gardens, or cupcake shops?

After a short break, Foodprint Project co-founder Sarah Rich will lead a conversation about the ways in which the edible landscape of New York City reflects the city’s rich history of immigration, expansion, social change, technical innovation, and even food scandals. Panelists Rebecca Federman, William Grimes, Annie Hauck-Lawson, and David Sax will discuss everything from the evolution of menu descriptions to the gradual disappearance of food production from the city.

Finally, Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG will bring the day to a close with a panel called Feast, Famine, and Other Scenarios, featuring Edible Schoolyard architect Amale Andraos, Cross-Species Cookbook creator Natalie Jeremijenko, Marcelo Coelho, whose work includes the concept design for a 3D digital food printer, and Beverly Tepper, whose research into supertasters offers new insights into the prevention of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

The result will be a speculative and wide-ranging conversation about food security, sensory design, and their hopes and fears for the future of food in New York City.

The event is free, there will be delicious drinks and cookies kindly provided by Izze and City Bakery, and panelists’ books for sale courtesy of WORD, an independent bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. If you’re in the city, come along and say hi – I’d love to meet you. And if not, check out the podcast and watch this space – the Foodprint Project will be coming to a city near you soon!