Culture

The Biggest Takeaways From President Obama’s Speech On Food Policy


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On Tuesday, President Obama shook off his new role as his wife’s Instagram photog, put down his margarita (that’s what we’d drink if we’d just come off two terms as president) and delivered his first speech to a global audience since leaving office. And if you’ve been itching to see Obama — one of our nations most thoughtful orators — get back into fine form, you need look no further than this 90-minute keynote that our 44th president delivered at Seeds & Chips a conference — where they’re investigating the “intersection of food and technology.”

Of course, 90 minutes is a long time to give anyone, even our most recent president, so while you can watch the entire video to check out Obama and Sam Kass (his former senior policy advisor on nutrition policy) discussing climate change and the moves we need to make now to ensure that humans have food in the future, Seeds & Chips has broken down his main points into easily-digestible conversation starters that you can use to begin a dialogue with your friends and family.

The most sobering thought? According to Obama (and scientists who have been telling us about the horrors of climate change for years) even if a miraculous shift allowed all governments to reduce emissions now, we’d still be doing damage control rather than straight prevention.

From his keynote:

“Even if every country somehow puts the brakes on the emissions that exist today, climate change would still have impact on our world for years to come. We’ve already seen shrinking yields and spiking food prices.”

Here are some other important takeaways from the speech:

Big changes start with small steps on an individual level.

On jobs:

Food has social and emotional power:

Food quality is paramount to longevity and education is imperative if we are to live longer, healthier lives:

https://twitter.com/r_immaginaria/status/861937169799184384


Worrying about climate change in the long term is a privilege:

Our focus on the future must incorporate technology in the food sphere:


On activism:

On the intersection between food, immigration and, the 45th president’s newest policies:

And on the trust between businesses, the government, and consumers:

Got 90 minutes? Because if you do, you should really watch the whole thing. The tweets are good, but there’s nothing like hearing Obama at his most confident, compassionate, and self-assured.