Foodprint NYC was the first in a series of international conversations about food and the city. From a cluster analysis of bodega inventories to the cultural impact of the ice-box, and from food deserts to peak phosphorus, panelists examined the hidden corsetry that gives shape to urban foodscapes, and collaboratively speculated on how to feed New York in the future. The free afternoon program included designers, policy-makers, flavor scientists, culinary historians, food retailers, and others, for a wide-ranging discussion of New York’s food systems, past and present, as well as opportunities to transform our edible landscape through technology, architecture, legislation, and education.
Our third panel was called Edible Archaeology. We asked Cooked Books author and NYPL librarian, Rebecca Federman, William Grimes, author of Appetite City, Annie Hauck-Lawson, co-editor of Gastropolis, and David Sax, author of Save the Deli, how the food culture of New York has been shaped by social changes, economic fluctuations, and technological innovations throughout the city’s history.