This weekend, as some of New York’s leading innovators, foodies, and chefs converge in Manhattan to explore the nexus of food and technology at the inaugural Food Loves Tech event, millions of people in developing countries will be cooking their families’ food just as our ancestors did thousands of years ago – with three rocks on the ground, over an open fire, burning dung, coal and wood for fuel. Still to this day, people around the world struggle with cooking or have never really learnt, and so turn to sites like https://www.preparedcooks.com for help. Although unbeknown to so many, cooking can actually be dangerous and cooking without even a basic knowledge of what you’re doing can have negative consequences.

Cooking this way is a silent killer. The World Health Organization reports that this year alone, 4.3 million people will die prematurely due to inhaling the toxic pollution from unsafe open hearth stoves–10,000 people every day. A disproportionate number of those affected are women and girls who often spend hours gathering fuel and breathing in damaging amounts of carcinogenic smoke as they cook.

Beyond the enormous burden this method of food preparation has on human lives, unsustainably harvested firewood contributes to vast deforestation, mudslides, and the destruction of fishing industries. Not to mention, the carcinogenic smoke from combusted solid fuels account for roughly 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions and up to 25% of the world’s black carbon emissions.

Fortunately, a “clean cooking” movement is gaining ground. The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, alongside its 1,500 diverse partners and team of international chefs from its Chef Corps, are working to raise awareness and develop solutions for this little-known yet significant global health issue. Thanks to innovative technological advances in stove and fuel development, formation of standards and testing, and greater investment in market-based approaches, the Alliance has helped nearly 50 million households gain access to cleaner, more efficient cookstoves and fuels in the past five years alone.

Yet, while momentum is building, far too many people are being impacted by diseases caused by smoke from rudimentary cookstoves. More must be done to spur innovation, increase investment, build awareness, and change dangerous behaviors that have been part of too many cultures for millennia. A large part of this involves educating people about different types of kitchen equipment such as a small induction hob for example. Not everyone understands or has ever been taught how best to cook safely and efficiently after all.

This weekend we are bringing our message to the FoodLovesTech event, joining Alliance Chef Corps members and stove manufacturers including Brooklyn-based BioLite and the solar-powered GoSun to shed light on this under-reported issue.

As FoodLovesTech highlights the rising public interest in the foods we eat and how we prepare them, it is a fitting venue for us to spread the word about clean cooking and to help harness some of New York’s disruptive thinkers and transformative energy to help solve this issue. Enhanced technology, coupled with creativity and passion for humanity are critical and necessary ingredients for success.

We can all agree that cooking shouldn’t kill. Where better than the New York City to spark conversation and assemble the necessary resources to help ensure that it no longer will.

Image: Chef Jose Andres, Edible editor Brian Halweil, Clean Cookstoves’ Radha Muthiah, Biolite’s Ethan Kay, and Alliance Chef Corps’ Ron Duprat at the clean cooking panel at FoodLovesTech.