Food Systems are About More Than Food

Cranberries: More than chutney? Food systems: More than food?

While massaging a cranberry-based facial product into her skin, Michelle got to wondering about where food systems begin and end. The same berries can be turned into a bioactive exfoliant or chutney. Ingredients are versatile beyond their food uses. So, she wondered, how should we be thinking about comestibles that we don’t actually eat? And might our work relevant to even wider audiences than one might assume?

These are questions that Nicole has been pondering for years — and was delighted to answer. The ensuing conversation (recreated for video) reminded us that opportunities to reshape food systems through relationship exist everywhere — well outside of your kitchen.

Michelle gets to do some lovely storytelling work with Pangea Organics — a very relational and intentional company that does more than just produce skincare products. Pangea She carried these conversations forward to be a positive part of the web of life. She carried these conversations about the permeable and ever-shifting nature of food system boundaries foward to their team, who were eager to share our perspectives with their community.

Read Michelle’s take on the connections between food systems, personal care, cosmetics on the Pangea Organics blog.