As Thanksgiving approaches, cooking truly takes center stage for many American families. Technology and innovation are taking the cooking space by storm as they change how we spend time in the kitchen, not just during Thanksgiving, but every day. 

Diabetes and heart disease cost the United States $1.72 trillion in Medicare, Medicaid, and lost productivity – more than twice what we spend on national defense. Yet, our broken food culture is mysteriously absent from the 2020 debate agenda.

It’s 2019 and no doubt, it’s full of promise and excitement - and questions. Here are the seven big questions we’ll be asking ourselves, partners and the broader community in 2019 about the future of food and health.

Larry Fink is an inspiration. His recent call on corporate America to have a “positive impact on society,” is spot on. The BlackRock CEO sent more than a thousand letters to CEOs of public companies across the globe urging them to take their responsibility to society and their respective companies seriously.

If we don’t want to remain an obese and unhealthy nation, we will have to rethink our century-long practice of ultra-processing and packaging a large part of the US food supply.

While my garden thrives with tomatoes, kale, cucumbers, broccoli, zucchini, peppers, and more over the course of a gardening season, I am known as a killer of melons. I have never managed to bring one to fruit, though certainly not for lack of trying.