Food Power

It is often said that food brings people together — but the reality is more complicated than that. Food is just as likely to keep people apart. Whether it pushes or pulls, the power of food comes less from its nutritive value than its cultural richness—a concoction of memory and emotion, taste and tradition, intention and identity, opportunity and hope.

The power of food, beyond its capacity to nourish, is something most people don’t often think about.. But just as food, or good food, rather, can heal our bodies, food can also heal our society. Climate change, social inequality, economic development, public health—when food is made central to our solutions to these problems, the results are better, more broadly engaging, and more palatable than many of the alternatives.