As someone who spends a lot of time writing about restaurants, I love the idea that good food shouldn't be reserved for people who can afford a tasting menu.
Some of my most memorable meals have been humble, communal, and accessible. Taste (and dignity) shouldn't be luxury goods.
As someone who writes about food law, I found this fascinating. It raises important questions about the role of public institutions in shaping not just access to food, but the experience of eating together.
Well-said. I think there’s also a way to connect food that would be wasted with these models, helping to cut costs and further reduce the carbon footprint of food. Massimo Bottura’s non-profit Food for Soul does something similar (not a public restaurant per se, but a “soup kitchen turned on its head”, where people who need a meal can be served a tasty, elegant meal often prepared by chefs in a nice environment, served by volunteer waiters, with food that would be wasted): https://foodforsoul.it/
This has the potential to solve so many problems, and I think you touched on them very well I just want to emphasize how much a concept like this could actually control what food companies make. As a food scientist who left my R&D position in industry I saw firsthand that companies will only adapt to something more sustainable or just if it is also profitable. Controlling a large amount of public food consumption through a mechanism like this could have enormous impact on regenerative ag and limiting greenwashing. I think it would have to be a nonprofit, though. Government funding would be inconsistent under various leaders and could quickly make it crash and burn.
I love this idea because it would have a positive knock on effect regarding social isolation, people would have a more natural way to meet, and people that struggle with the tidying up for whatever reason wouldn't have to worry. Disabled or neurodivergent people often find the prep and post clean up overwhelming, people who work long hours need more time for themselves. It would help reduce individual food waste and packaging waste.
As you mention, public restaurants are expensive to build and run. I can imagine that many people will ask “Where will we get the money to pay for subsidized meals or public restaurants?”
The answer, as you suggest, is reform.
It’s worth noting that money isn’t a scarce commodity; money is basically created with the click of a keyboard by allocating credit and making digital accounting entries.
But there is an artificial scarcity and systemic shortage of money because it is created on the basis of interest-bearing debt, which keeps us in a collective state of perpetual debt and contributes to involuntary unemployment. And credit is often misallocated for unproductive purposes (such as speculation and consumption), which can lead to price inflation, making food more expensive.
Perhaps we also need to reform the monetary/financial system or build alternative systems, and then allocate interest-free credit for productive purposes. We have resources, labour, etc. Money can be created as needed to facilitate production and trade, within ecological limitations and material economic constraints. The production and provision of food shouldn’t be artificially curtailed by an artificial scarcity of money, and the monetary/financial system shouldn’t be designed to extract value and to further concentrate wealth by issuing money on the basis of interest-bearing debt and misallocating credit for unproductive purposes.
As someone who spends a lot of time writing about restaurants, I love the idea that good food shouldn't be reserved for people who can afford a tasting menu.
Some of my most memorable meals have been humble, communal, and accessible. Taste (and dignity) shouldn't be luxury goods.
As someone who writes about food law, I found this fascinating. It raises important questions about the role of public institutions in shaping not just access to food, but the experience of eating together.
Well-said. I think there’s also a way to connect food that would be wasted with these models, helping to cut costs and further reduce the carbon footprint of food. Massimo Bottura’s non-profit Food for Soul does something similar (not a public restaurant per se, but a “soup kitchen turned on its head”, where people who need a meal can be served a tasty, elegant meal often prepared by chefs in a nice environment, served by volunteer waiters, with food that would be wasted): https://foodforsoul.it/
Thanks, Claire! Yes, quite interesting model, also.
This has the potential to solve so many problems, and I think you touched on them very well I just want to emphasize how much a concept like this could actually control what food companies make. As a food scientist who left my R&D position in industry I saw firsthand that companies will only adapt to something more sustainable or just if it is also profitable. Controlling a large amount of public food consumption through a mechanism like this could have enormous impact on regenerative ag and limiting greenwashing. I think it would have to be a nonprofit, though. Government funding would be inconsistent under various leaders and could quickly make it crash and burn.
I love this idea because it would have a positive knock on effect regarding social isolation, people would have a more natural way to meet, and people that struggle with the tidying up for whatever reason wouldn't have to worry. Disabled or neurodivergent people often find the prep and post clean up overwhelming, people who work long hours need more time for themselves. It would help reduce individual food waste and packaging waste.
Exactly how i was thinking about it!
As you mention, public restaurants are expensive to build and run. I can imagine that many people will ask “Where will we get the money to pay for subsidized meals or public restaurants?”
The answer, as you suggest, is reform.
It’s worth noting that money isn’t a scarce commodity; money is basically created with the click of a keyboard by allocating credit and making digital accounting entries.
But there is an artificial scarcity and systemic shortage of money because it is created on the basis of interest-bearing debt, which keeps us in a collective state of perpetual debt and contributes to involuntary unemployment. And credit is often misallocated for unproductive purposes (such as speculation and consumption), which can lead to price inflation, making food more expensive.
Perhaps we also need to reform the monetary/financial system or build alternative systems, and then allocate interest-free credit for productive purposes. We have resources, labour, etc. Money can be created as needed to facilitate production and trade, within ecological limitations and material economic constraints. The production and provision of food shouldn’t be artificially curtailed by an artificial scarcity of money, and the monetary/financial system shouldn’t be designed to extract value and to further concentrate wealth by issuing money on the basis of interest-bearing debt and misallocating credit for unproductive purposes.