The Future of Food Is the Focus as IFT Celebrates 75 Years

This year we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT); next year, we will celebrate our 75th IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo^®. These two milestones provide a unique opportunity to recognize the historical impact of our work, communicate the importance of our profession, and help others realize the value of food science and technology and its critical role in feeding a growing population expected to increase to nine billion people by 2050.

To celebrate our accomplishments over the past 75 years, and also the future potential of food science and technology, we will focus on several new initiatives. They include traditional anniversary celebrations, a re-envisioning and re-branding of the IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo, plus a variety of other activities where IFT members and the food community at large can get more involved.

This anniversary offers a new opportunity to tell our story to a broad audience, including the general public. To do that, we will launch a new program called FutureFood 2050, which will begin this year and continue through the IFT Annual Meeting in 2015. Under the FutureFood 2050 umbrella, we will conduct 75 interviews with prominent figures, influencers, and personalities in the food world and beyond. Their stories, crafted by an editorial team, will generate opportunities to create a dialogue on the promise of the profession and its ability to solve food challenges of the future. IFT will develop a dedicated website to house the 75 stories, which will be released over the next year or so.

This will lead to a second high-profile promotional opportunity. Based on the 75 interviews, a team consisting of a film director, print editors, advisors from the IFT Board of Directors, and IFT staff will identify compelling story angles and develop a feature-length documentary-style film. We will be partnering with Slack and Company, a respected global communications agency that worked on IFT’s 50th anniversary activities. Through these storylines, the film will focus on how food science will improve the world through sustainable solutions. By shifting the conversation to science, the goal will be to educate the public about how we will solve future food challenges based on innovation.

FutureFood 2050 will serve as a bridge between the anniversary celebrations in 2014 and 2015 by creating an ongoing promotional platform that touches on a variety of themes, from feeding the world sustainably to working on the cutting edge, and more.

Our positive outlook, especially one that is based on science, inherently sets this initiative apart from the rest. The need to communicate the wonders of food science and technology and the implications to developing and sustaining a healthy population has never been greater. We often see a more negative take on food development, manufacturing, and production in the general press, and it’s difficult to counter with a message that is about the science.

FutureFood 2050 can be used as a platform from which we take the messaging and speak in positive terms about the global food supply. We will talk about safety and nutritional value of our food, which is well and good. We will credit our science and technology that help deliver a bounty of food that is available in forms acceptable to a wide range of consumers and populations. We will point to its great taste and how it is strongly affected by our historic use of science. We need to claim that position: we preserve and enhance the quality and quantity of food. It is time that we develop a strong and positive voice and platform from which to speak broadly about our world, our profession, and our knowledge and understanding of the food system.

Bringing the message to a wide audience in a way that touches individuals will surely aid in the knowledge that the food system is safe, nutritionally abundant, and available through technological developments we make. Our collaborations along the food chain make it possible to consume food with not only assurance of safety and nutritional quality, but also with enjoyment and delight.

Please join us in our endeavor to communicate the important role that food science and technology play in providing a healthy, nutritious, safe, and plentiful global food supply. Watch for activities about the celebration of our 75th anniversary to kick off this month. I wish you and your family good health and great happiness in the New Year.

Janet E. Collins