Are We Eating Ourselves and the Planet to Death?

Abstract

Adelaide Festival of Ideas session, Old Methodist Meeting Hall, 10:00am, Saturday 8th October, 2011. There are numerous areas where humans have achieved a peak of success, a ‘sweet spot’. But now that very success is threatening to unravel centuries of achievement. On the one hand, economic growth has led to a steadily improving standard of living, better levels of health and ever-increasing longevity. On the other hand, this very affluence is the reason for the obesity epidemic and a world clogged by greenhouse gases. A fundamental change in thinking is now required for dealing with both, requiring input not just from scientists or health specialists, but from everyone living on the planet.