Provocations: What will we eat in the future?

As climate change, population growth, and ecological collapse reshape how we produce and consume food, we need to think outside the (lunch) box to find solutions.

Our dynamic panel, hosted by ABC presenter Hilary Harper, will discuss food systems, waste, packaging experts and inventive cooks as they explore what we'll be eating in the future, and how food security, food sovereignty, nutrition and wellbeing are interconnected and dependent. 

How can we eliminate food waste, recycle and extend food life, and secure food systems in the face of the climate emergency, a plastics dependence, and a tumultuous water-energy-food nexus? What does the future of food taste and smell like and who gets to decide what's put on our plates? 

Learn what's simmering in food science, what's sizzling in food and packaging innovation, and rethink the main course on the dinner plates of the future.

Speakers

  • Bruce Pascoe, Aboriginal farmer and writer of literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature. His publications have won numerous awards including the groundbreaking, bestselling book Dark Emu 
  • Ben Shewry, internationally renowned chef, restaurateur, and creative obsessive. Owner of Attica in Melbourne and writer of the books Origin and Uses for Obsession 
  • Bhavna Middha, sustainable consumption scholar and Deputy Associate Director of the Regenerative Environments and Climate Action Theme at RMIT's School of Global, Urban and Social Studies 
  • Natalie Jovanovski, health sociologist and Vice Chancellor's Senior Research Fellow in RMIT's School of Health and Biomedical Sciences and Social Equity Research Centre (SERC) 

This event is part of Provocations – RMIT University's Talks and Ideas series.

Buy tickets

Share

Upcoming events

1220x732-chloe-rose-thomas.jpg

'Can I Hold You?' by Chloe Rose Thomas

Icon / Small / CalendarCreated with Sketch. 19 May 2026 - 12 Jun 2026

Chloe Rose Thomas’ exhibition, 'Can I Hold You?' centres on queer community and embodied practices of care, exploring what it means to take traditional photographic portraits of non-normative bodies and the histories they represent.

1220x732-ko-jou-chen.jpg

'Portable Stillness' by Ko Jou Chen

Icon / Small / CalendarCreated with Sketch. 19 May 2026 - 12 Jun 2026

'Portable Stillness' (2025), is an ongoing spatial installation that explores how the making of miniature objects and floating altar-like displays can express memory, collection, and the domestic in transition. Motivated by the instability of diasporic living and continual relocation, Ko Jou Chen constructs handmade structures that carry memory and presence across her shifting environments.

1220x732-noah-bridger-first-site.jpg

'Slip' by Noah Bridger

Icon / Small / CalendarCreated with Sketch. 19 May 2026 - 12 Jun 2026

'Slip' is a practice-led research project that explores the poetic qualities of the bluestones that have been discarded in recent construction works around RMIT University. Through the process of moulding and casting these stones into beeswax, Noah Bridger hopes to reimagine Melbourne’s urban landscape.

Load more
aboriginal flag float-starttorres strait flag float-start

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Indigenous cultures