Welcome to The Future Market

This newsletter is where I write about the future of food.

The big shifts and the small signals. How technology, policy, culture, and behavior are remaking what we grow, sell, cook, and eat — across timeframes from next year to fifty years out.

Some weeks that means a piece on how dietary tribalism is splintering the American diet. Other weeks it’s a closer look at what immigration enforcement is doing to the people who feed this country, or what a free grocery store pop-up reveals about a permanent crisis. The throughline is that food is never just food. It’s labor, climate, politics, identity, and incentive structures, all on a plate.

I publish weekly on Tuesdays. Subscribe below if any of that sounds like your kind of reading.

— Mike

About the Author

I’m Mike Lee. I’m a food futurist and innovation consultant based in Metro Detroit.

The Future Market is the name I work under for my speaking and foresight consulting. It’s me, plus the partners I bring in when a project calls for it. I’m also the author and designer of Mise: On the Future of Food, a book of four future scenarios spanning 2033 to 2067. Before The Future Market, I founded Alpha Food Labs and worked in innovation and new ventures at Chobani.

I’m the grandson and son of Chinese American restaurant owners. I was raised in their kitchens and dining rooms in Metro Detroit, surrounded by both family food ventures and the auto industry’s tradition of concept cars. Both of those things shape how I think about innovation. I studied business at the University of Michigan and design at Parsons.

If you want to go deeper on the speaking and consulting work, that’s on the Work With Me page. For everything else, the writing is here.

Contact: mike@thefuturemarket.com