Food for Thought

Series

The Fifth Estate

Where

The Wheeler Centre

When

Tuesday, 18 Sep 2012, 06:15pm - 07:15pm

Event Status

Past event

When President Obama was welcomed for his ‘night of friendship’ dinner with Prime Minister Gillard in Canberra last year, he feasted on ‘a macadamia and thyme encrusted lamb canon with avocado cream quenelle’ and wattleseed pavlova. Yet on our doorstep in nearby Indonesia – far from the horn of Africa or Bangladesh – one in three children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition.

For most of human history food was a source of strength and nourishment: people were concerned with the supply and cost of food, not the colour of their salt. Food trends, food critics and celebrity chefs didn’t exist. In Australia, the change in food culture has been remarkably fast and dramatic. The way we produce, purchase and eat our food has shifted from sustenance to fetish.

How did this happen? And has it gone too far? Or can our obsession with food somehow serve to improve rather than ignore the malnutrition experienced by so many on our planet? Join Sally Warhaft and writer Maria Tumarkin, food writer Richard Cornish and Oxfam Executive Director Andrew Hewett.

Featuring

Featuring

Maria Tumarkin

Maria Tumarkin writes books, essays, reviews, and pieces for performance and radio; she collaborates with sound and visual artists and has had her work carved into dockside tiles. She is the author of four books of ideas. Her fourth (and latest) book Axiomatic won the 2018 Melbourne Prize for Lit... Read more

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Richard Cornish

Richard Cornish is an award-winning food writer who penned the much loved and irreverent Fairfax Media column Brain Food for more than seven years. He has co-authored the bestselling MoVida cookbooks with Frank Camorra, and Phillippa’s Home Baking with Phillippa Grogan. My Year Without Meat was pu... Read more

@FoodCornish

Sally Warhaft

Sally Warhaft is a Melbourne broadcaster, anthropologist and writer. She is the host of The Fifth Estate, the Wheeler Centre’s live series focusing on journalism, politics, media, and international relations, and The Leap Year, a Wheeler Centre podcast about Australians’ lives in the fog of ... Read more

@SallyWarhaft

Andrew Hewett

Andrew Hewett is Executive Director of Oxfam Australia. Andrew’s previous positions with Oxfam include leadership of the agency’s advocacy program and the direction of Oxfam International’s response to the crisis in East Timor from 1999 – 2001. Andrew has extensive international advocacy... Read more