The topic was Changing the Way We Eat, an independently organized event, TED-style, by Diane Hatz, Co-Founder, and Director of the Glynwood Institute. Held at The Times Center, it was a gathering of individuals interested in our food system: how things grow, what gets grown, who eats/who doesn’t, what’s in the food we eat (are you sure you want to know?), what about the environment (affecting food/being affected by agriculture) and what about the other animals (the ones we eat). And more.

There is almost nothing better than feeling passionate about a cause and then spending time with a crowd that treasures the same value set. It is an opportunity to visit with a good many friends and acquaintances and make new connections as well.

It is inspirational to listen to incredibly intelligent and well-informed speakers who articulately speak on topics I already care about, and then add another dimension of analysis and new information or perspective. I recommend watching the talks online, as several were quite outstanding.

But something really surprised me about the experience. I anticipated leaving positively stimulated and energized to continue the fight for a better, more just, healthier food system. I joined my family for dinner out and discovered that instead of feeling upbeat and rejuvenated, I was actually angry; I was mad at everyone who ate meat for dinner, annoyed at the restaurant for even having asparagus on the menu, frustrated at the lack of transparency on the fish items (where was this fish from and was it really what they said it was) and ballistic that there was any ambiguity as to the destructive nature of hydrofracking.

Perhaps the conference had not intended to give us hope — but rather to disrupt any complacency around the pace of change and the evolution of a national agenda around food policy. Simply put, it is like changing any complex and ingrained system that is deeply rooted in the economic advantages of powerful self-interests.

It was several days before the cloud lifted. I could barely stop thinking about the confinement of sows in the face of the national obsession with bacon. How hard an equation is that? Or the transformation of our agricultural world, increasingly defined by commodity crops, GMO seeds, toxins, and consolidation. Or wondering about the true contents of food sourced from someone or someplace I do not personally know.