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Food hacking for good: Ways to improve the food system

A food hackathon in San Francisco brought together programmers, designers, and investors to work on ways to improve the food system.

Hackathons are typically events where programmers gather to compete to solve a software challenge. But a food hackathon has just wrapped up in San Francisco, where programmers, designers, and investors spent a couple of days working on ways to improve the food system.

“There is a whole wave of innovation that is going to be happening around different food businesses — both straightforward, as well as crazy,” says Dave McClure, of the venture capital firm 500 Startups who participated as a hackathon judge. Among the things that captured his imagination: Harvesting edible insects, hand-gesture recognition in restaurants, and renting, instead of owning, a garden.

Avant-garde chefs are also part of the movement to bring new high tech thinking to the dining table. Wylie Dufresne, chef and owner of famous New York restaurant WD-50, joins Marketplace Tech host David Brancaccio to discuss his approach to food and cooking.

To learn more about San Francisco’s Food Hackathon, click here.

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