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The Common Table

@thecommontable.eu
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A platform for food thinking, food futures and systemic change thecommontable.eu

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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 20/08/2026
Agrifood and the building industry are among the biggest global greenhouse gas emitters. We asked Klaus Wiens from the German supermarket group REWE what they are doing about it, and visited their first timber-construction supermarket with rooftop farm in Berlin. thecommontable.eu/revolution-n...
thecommontable.eu
Revolution Not Evolution — The Common Table
Klaus Wiens, head of construction at Rewe on their all-new timber construction supermarkets, complete with rooftop farms supplying fresh greens to the region.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 06/08/2026
The Common Table just turned six. Its founders take stock of their platform and renew their pledge to champion voices for change in humankind’s greatest task ahead: transitioning to a global ecosystem of economies that are decent, fair and safe – through food. thecommontable.eu/what-are-we-...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 06/08/2026
The Common Table just turned six. Its founders take stock of their platform and renew their pledge to champion voices for change in humankind’s greatest task ahead: transitioning to a global ecosystem of economies that are decent, fair and safe – through food. thecommontable.eu/what-are-we-...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 06/08/2026
The Common Table just turned six. Its founders take stock of their platform and renew their pledge to champion voices for change in humankind’s greatest task ahead: transitioning to a global ecosystem of economies that are decent, fair and safe – through food. thecommontable.eu/what-are-we-...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 19/05/2026
We just published a wonderfully hopeful interview with Tara Shyam, Executive Director of @regen10.bsky.social an alliance whose mission is to change the entire food system, resiliently, regeneratively and responsibly. Images: @kadirvanlohuizen.bsky.social thecommontable.eu/how-to-feed-...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 02/05/2026
It's not news that there is something pretty toxic about the fine-dining industry. Instances of abuse and mental health issues abound. We sought out a Michelin-starred chef who has been through the system and thought long and hard about system change. thecommontable.eu/remove-the-a...
thecommontable.eu
Remove The Arbiters Of Taste — The Common Table
We talk to the Michelin-starred chef Ivan Brehm of Nouri in Singapore about artifice, agency, and the unsustainable game fine dining has become.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 17/03/2026
"Whether the strategy succeeds could depend less on its legislation than on whether the cultural understanding of soil shifts from background condition to central actor." The EU Soil Strategy's Soil Monitoring Law went into force in December 2025, but is it enough to save our soils and ourselves?
thecommontable.eu
SOS: Who's Saving Our Soils? — The Common Table
The EU Soil Strategy for 2030 was launched as part of the European Green Deal, but is it enough to save our soils and ourselves?
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 11/03/2026
In The Last Harvest, we feature a beautiful documentary film by Dan Saladino and the Gaia Foundation about ecologist, scientist, and farmer Dr Debal Deb, who has spent decades working with his community to save over 1,400 rice varieties from extinction.
thecommontable.eu
The Last Harvest — The Common Table
Dr Debal Deb and The Last Harvest is a documentary about one man's decades-long battle to rescue India's indigenous rice diversity from oblivion. Journalist Dan Saladino visits Basudha Farm in Odisha,...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 11/03/2026
The Burnt Chef Revolution: In a timely interview, Kris Hall, the founder of The Burnt Chef Project, discusses how he came to found a global mental health support network for the hospitality industry – a professional field renowned for its toxic work environments. thecommontable.eu/the-burnt-ch...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 11/03/2026
The strange story of WWII veteran Stanley Green, who spent 25 years, from 1968 to 1993, standing on the corner of Oxford Street in London, urging people to adopt a low-protein diet and dampen their passions. Was he a proto-incel or a beacon of resilience – or both? thecommontable.eu/beans-peas-n...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 20/02/2026
The Future is Ancestral: "They are not farmers anymore; they are the guardians of the environment. They’re keepers of knowledge. What they need to do is not just produce crops, but produce life." thecommontable.eu/the-future-i...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 04/02/2026
How can grassroots support of local producers, regional ecology and traditional practice work without commercial exploitation? By making education the product. Our latest interview is with a honey expert in Oaxaca.
thecommontable.eu
The Honey Merchant — The Common Table
Diego Contreras is a honey expert from the uniquely biodiverse region of Oaxaca. His project Nunduve aims to educate consumers about honey's origins and environmental issues, rather than just its flav...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 26/01/2026
"If you go to difficult places and start talking about something as common and good as cooking, eating, and food traditions, then you can break through some of the alienation between readers and subjects." There is so much to learn through the lens of food.
thecommontable.eu
Through The Lens Of Food — The Common Table
Nathan Thornburgh, co-founder and publisher of Roads & Kingdoms, who worked closely with Anthony Bourdain, explains how food can be a lens on the world and the soul.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 10/11/2025
“The preparation, textures, and slowness of food scenes in Ghibli films, such as the clatter of bowls, steam rising from soups, and the slurping sounds of characters eating, all evoke sensory comfort; a cinematic version of a warm hug.”
thecommontable.eu
The Ghibli Foodiverse — The Common Table
In the Studio Ghibli foodiverse, food is hearth and home, conjuring a sensual state of longing and belonging, says Sophie Lovell.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 03/10/2025
Supply chain transparency and integrity are not just good practice; they are also becoming mandatory. Food industry expert William Harris and Cynthia Asaf of Pacifical talking about why digital technology is a game-changer for the industry, with implications for supply chain monitoring worldwide.
thecommontable.eu
Transparent Tuna — The Common Table
Cynthia Asaf of Pacifical on using digital traceability to improve transparency and integrity in the Pacific tuna supply chain and why it's a game-changer.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 16/08/2025
Can Food Design improve our relationships with food, or is it just fancy plating? OxfordFoodSymposium’ Kitchen Table & @thecommontable.eu invited Priya Mani, Sonia Massari, @fparasecoli.bsky.social, Laila Snevele, @sophielovell.com & Orlando Lovell to discuss. thecommontable.eu/food-design-...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 16/08/2025
We need to talk about Food Design. thecommontable.eu/food-design-...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 13/07/2025
“What if the settlers had arrived and had agreed to coexist instead? I wonder if we would have had a robust, very cool food culture by now. Because they were so hell-bent on disappearing us, we never got that cross-cultural exchange and an evolution of what American food truly could have been.”
thecommontable.eu
The Good Life — The Common Table
Anishinaabe Algonquin filmmaker Cass Gardiner talks to The Common Table about how she uses food as a window for non-Native people into her world and community.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 09/06/2025
“One day, while watching them, I thought: what if these birds could cooperate and create their own alphabet?” A multi species food alphabet by @curly_mads. thecommontable.eu/wild-birds-f... #thecommontable #curlymads #wildbirds #wildbirdsalphabet #pictoplasma #foodalphabet #risoprint
Risoprint illustration of two blackbirds playing with a carrot and two other birds forming the letter C with their bodies.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 09/06/2025
“Every morning, I visit a large urban park near my home to watch birds.” artist @curly_mads tells the story of herWild Birds Food Alphabet. thecommontable.eu/wild-birds-f... Wild Birds Food Alphabet — The Common Table #thecommontable #curlymads #wildbirds #foodalphabet #pictoplasma
Risoprint illustration of birds and nuts and two birds forming a letter N with their bodies.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 08/06/2025
We invited Systems Change Designer Ashley Scarborough to The Common Table to share how she redesigned her own professional path and found food systems as her medium.
thecommontable.eu
Change The (Design) System — The Common Table
A conversation with Systems Change Designer Ashley Scarborough about how she redesigned her own professional path and found food systems as her medium.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 12/05/2025
Adjust your preconceptions about Food Design by joining the Oxford Food Symposium Kitchen Table panel talk online with the founders of The Common Table and others here tomorrow May 13th 6pm CEST on Zoom
oxfordsymposium.org.uk
We need to talk about 'Food Design': What is it and can it improve our relationships with food, individually or on a global scale? - Oxford Food Symposium
Agriculturalists, economists, chefs, politicians & policy makers, and educationalists & educators have ‘solutions’ relating to improving the food system. Unfortunately, many have fallen flat, and we c...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 24/04/2025
If you want to understand how we ended up in this mess, you go to an expert. The Common Table talked to political economist @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social about her banging new book: "Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why It Matters".
thecommontable.eu
A Game Of Monopoly — The Common Table
We talk to Canadian political economist Jennifer Clapp about her latest book, “Titans of Industrial Agriculture” and the evolution of an extreme concentration of power that has allowed 12 companies to...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 27/03/2025
Just as we understand individual ingredients, like apples or crisps, to be expressions of systems, The Common Table is an expression of a system initiated by studio_lovell. It is designed to be a hospitable space for learning to ask better questions.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 27/03/2025
The Common Table's founders studio_lovell were invited to co-design an immersive dining experience and give a keynote at the #HotelschoolTheHague for their Future of Food course in Amsterdam. We talked about learning to ask better questions & understanding ingredients as expressions of systems.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 26/02/2025
Now more than ever it is so important to question the narratives we are fed. Our interview with Fabio Aranzulla and Luca Cinquemani aka Aterraterra, whose interdisciplinary work questions accepted narratives within agriculture and food cultures, just went online. We'd love to hear your feedback.
thecommontable.eu
Ancient Grains And Other Myths — The Common Table
The interdisciplinary work of Aterraterra intersects artistic and agricultural practices and questions accepted narratives within agriculture and food cultures.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 24/02/2025
Another agreeable Monday morning provocation 🍄
thecooldown.com
Scientists just created a biodegradable battery using mushrooms — and it actually works
Researchers have created a fungal battery that can power small sensors, showcasing the untapped power of the fungal community.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 24/02/2025
An enjoyable Monday morning provocation
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 22/02/2025
Game changer?
theguardian.com
UK soil breakthrough could cut farm fertiliser use and advance sustainable agriculture
Research group says discovery could lead to new type of environmentally friendly farming
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 19/02/2025
Reading list
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 18/02/2025
Food systems are emerging as a new focus of investigative cultural practice. The Common Table talked to curator and researcher Meriç Öner, former Director at Salt in Istanbul, who brings a unique perspective to the intersection of food, culture and art. thecommontable.eu/foods-capaci...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 18/02/2025
The Oxford Real Farming Conference 2025 sessions are now online for everybody. There were some amazing talks. Well worth listening in, particularly Unpicking Food & Farming Misinformation, Is a Fossil-free Food System Possible and Roots of Resistance. 🌱🥬🌾💚
orfc.org.uk
ORFC Archive
Explore conference material that we have gathered over the years including videos, presentations and summaries of the sessions…
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 14/02/2025
Seed sovereignty is a vital issue.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 13/02/2025
Embracing food thinking not only facilitates an accessible, inclusive path to understanding and nurturing thriving ecologies by building and maintaining healthy relationships, it is essential to survival.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 12/02/2025
Food is everything
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 12/02/2025
What if there was a more inclusive way to approach the design process than “design thinking”? One that is based, not on “things” or “problems” but on building and maintaining healthy relationships instead? 1/3 thecommontable.eu/food-thinking/
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 11/02/2025
We love beans
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 11/02/2025
New newsletter just dropped at The Common Table. Sign up if you would like to receive the next one. thecommontable.eu/newsletter/
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Reposted by The Common Table
Leon Simons @leonsimons.com · 04/02/2025
Main finding: 'Global warming for 0.5 W/m² ship forcing today is 0.2°C' The vast majority of the decrease in reflected sunlight, increase in Absorbed Solar Radiation and additional warming occurs over the Northern Hemisphere, where most of us live and will be affected!
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 04/02/2025
A timely conversation with Food Studies professor Fabio Parasecoli on gastronativism (the “ideological use of food in politics to advance ideas about who belongs to a community”) the weaponising of food in politics and systemic thinking in a design context. thecommontable.eu/gastronativi...
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 01/02/2025
We had a chat with Food Studies professor @fparasecoli.bsky.social about gastronativism (the “ideological use of food in politics to advance ideas about who belongs to a community”) and it turned into a fascinating conversation about “us”, “them”, food, politics, and systemic thinking. Have a read!
thecommontable.eu
Gastronativism: Us & Them — The Common Table
Food Studies professor Fabio Parasecoli on gastronativism. A conversation about "us", "them", food, politics and systemic thinking.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 29/01/2025
“We use huge amounts of land for the cultivation of commodities we actually need less of, like sugar beet and maize, which, while profitable, are often not used to nourish our communities.”
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 29/01/2025
Timely read
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 17/01/2025
“The old world is dying, and the new world is struggling to be born. Now is the time of monsters.” Antonio Gramsci Little monster by @aetherelf.bsky.social
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Reposted by The Common Table
Nathan Nelson @nathannelson.co.uk · 15/01/2025
Also worth mentioning (sorry if you're already aware) @adamcalo.bsky.social has a substack on land reform adamcalo.substack.com
adamcalo.substack.com
Land Food Nexus | Adam Calo | Substack
To change food, change land. Click to read Land Food Nexus, by Adam Calo, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
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Reposted by The Common Table
TheBlindboyPodcast @blindboyboatclub.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
How is this possible? Who cares if there's "lack of public support". A completely unique 6000 year old site that provides evidence of early farming technology, right now when the climate is collapsing? How is that not interesting? Protect the fucker www.independent.ie/irish-news/c...
independent.ie
Céide Fields ditched as possible World Heritage Site ‘due to lack of public support’
The Céide Fields, one of the most important and extensive Stone Age ­monuments in the world, was ditched as a possible World Heritage Site due to a “lack of public support”.
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 13/01/2025
Someone should make a Koyaanisquatsi-like film following the path of an individual ingredient in the global food chain. No words, just the journey and the animals, people and places along the way.
youtube.com
cine experimental / Koyaanisqatsi / (1982)
YouTube video by San Isidro Cine Club
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 10/01/2025
What do you think are the right policy supports to help this transition for farmers and people in the food industry? asks @tabledebates.bsky.social Matthew Kessler of regenerative food systems expert Rupert Simons @systemiq.bsky.social Oxford Real Farmers Conference #ORFC25
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The Common Table @thecommontable.eu · 10/01/2025
Loving this discussion. What do you think are the right policy supports to help this transition? asks @tabledebates.bsky.social Matthew Kessler of agroecologist and agricultural biodiversity expert Emile Frison @ipes-food.org Oxford Real Farmers Conference #ORFC25
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