Agency Archives — The Common Table

A Game of Monopoly

30. May 2025
10 minute read

We talk to Canadian political economist Jennifer Clapp about her latest book, “Titans of Industrial Agriculture” and the evolution of an extreme concentration of power that has allowed 12 companies to control most of the world's food production.

Change the (Design) System

29. May 2025
8 minute read

A conversation with Systems Change Designer Ashley Scarborough about how she redesigned her own professional path and found food systems as her medium.

Water Buffalo herd wallowing in hot springs

The Capacity to Evoke

17. February 2025
10 minute read

Food and food systems are emerging as a vital focus of investigative cultural practice. The Common Table talked to curator Meriç Öner, former Director of Salt in Istanbul, who brings her unique perspective to the intersection of food, culture and art.

Gastronativism: Us & Them

1. February 2025
12 minute read

Food Studies professor Fabio Parasecoli on gastronativism, the "ideological use of food in politics to advance ideas about who belongs to a community". A conversation about "us", "them", food, politics, and systemic thinking.

Inside Story: Food Behind Bars

19. October 2024
15 minute read

Chef Natalia Middleton from the non-profit Food Behind Bars talks about about control, mental health, monopolies in the British prison system and creating change through food.

Decolonising Hazelnuts

11. May 2024
9 minute read

The founders of a tiny Anatolian and Berlin hazelnut business share how they are challenging one of the most powerful food monopolies with fair-labour, biodiversity, creating incentives and leading locally by example.

Microbial Sovereignty and Panchal Dairy

15. February 2024
8 minute read

Trevor Warmedahl reports on the marginalised Rabari community in Gujarat, India and how a dairy there is working to help return value to their pastoral ways through cheesemaking.

The Fairr Sharers

9. December 2023
19 minute read

The FAIRR Initiative's investor members manage over 70 trillion USD in assets. We asked Sajeev Mohankumar and Max Boucher, co-authors of their first "Regenerative Agriculture Report" how investors can be equipped to demand change.

Diet Degrowth

30. September 2023
11 minute read

Sean Roy Parker is part of a movement seeking new connections between food, consumption and digestion. Here he proposes a new "diet degrowth" discourse.