Welcome from the editor: a leap of faith

Welcome and thank you for joining me this weekend.

This week I’ve thinking about what happens when we take a leap of faith and venture into the unknown, or at least the little known.

Taking risks and daring can be scary, but I also believe it can produce wonderfully unexpected results that can shape our lives in the most surprising way.

Former diplomat Justin Kolbeck and cardiologist Aryé Elfenbein, may have never envisaged becoming the biggest producers of cell-based salmon, but an idea and a passion for environmental issues has led them to found WildType.
WildType may very well be the first lab-grown sushi grade salmon available in restaurants soon and may forever change consumers’ minds about what was once dubbed ‘frankenfood’.

In the same vein, Rachel Roddy only travelled to Rome to learn Italian. Little did she know that thanks to her spur-of-the-moment decision, she’d becomea Guardian food columnist, a book author, and if that wasn’t enough, she’d also find love in the Eternal City.

Scientists at the Finnish university of Turku were researching the causes of obesity, but what they have discovered have a strong impact on obesity prevention and treatment in the future.

It’s also thanks to leaps of faith that many foods and food production and preservation methods were discovered. In fact, we have to thank Homo erectus for unknowingly inventing processed food and the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians for introducing food preservation. The feature The evolution of ingredients, nutrition and consumer demand explores this topic and looks at what the future of food might hold.

Whilst I’m not advocating throwing caution to the wind, I think a bit of boldness, intuition and openness can indeed lead to great things…

Wishing you a wonderful weekend,

Stef