Sarah Wilson headlines new food event

The Sydney Opera House is playing host to a brand-new mini festival of talks that will turn the tables on contemporary food fads.

Fixing Food will take place at the Opera House on Saturday 14 July with a crack team of scientific, culinary and environmental experts discussing a range of topics – and the ticket price even includes a specially curated lunch box created from indigenous and locally sourced ingredients.

Kicking off the day, a panel titled What Should I Eat? will feature New York Times-bestselling author Sarah Wilson, Indigenous food expert Jody Orcher and Professor Grant Brinkworth from the CSIRO discussing the myths and realities about diets and food fads.

Oxford-based reformed anti-GMO activist Mark Lynas will deliver a solo talk, GMO: No Way or OK? In a world-famous recantation speech in 2013, Mark apologised for having destroyed GM crop trials. He has authored several books on the environment, including Seeds of Science, High Tide, Six Degrees and The God Species: How the Planet Can Survive the Age of Humans.

British food and environmental writer Louise Gray will also deliver a solo talk on the subject of her book, The Ethical Carnivore. Taking the current fashion for understanding the provenance of ‘ethical meat’ to its logical conclusion, Louise vowed to spend a year eating only animals she had killed herself. From bivalves through to bovines, Louise also learned how to skin and cook her game.

The curated lunchbox for ticket holders has two options, one with seared kangaroo fillet salad with bush tomatoes, roasted beets, pumpkin, baby chard and bush nuts with a finger lime dressing, and the second is a vegan and gluten free salad.

The talks kick off from 12pm on Saturday 14 July.