Transdisciplinary Case Studies on Design for Food and Sustainability

342 Pages·2021·6.407 MB·English

by  Sonia Massari

TRANSDISCIPLINARY
CASE STUDIES
ON DESIGN FOR
FOOD AND SUSTAINABILITY
Woodhead Publishing Series in
Consumer Science and Strategic
Marketing
TRANSDISCIPLINARY
CASE STUDIES
ON DESIGN FOR
FOOD AND SUSTAINABILITY
Edited by
SONIA MASSARI
Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy
ISIA Rome Design, Rome, Italy
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Dedication
To Zoe, Vasco, and Elia:
Help me to always see the future through a child’s eyes.
Childrenarealwayslookingattheworldasifitwasforthefirsttimeintheirlives.
So,weshouldalwayslooktotheworldwiththeeyesofachild.Iamnotsayingbe
naive,Iamsayingbeinnocentinthesenseofdiscoveringthings.
–PauloCoelho
Contributors
EmilyBallantyne-Brodie
MagicalFarm,Hobart,TAS,Australia
RicardoBonacho
EstorilHigherInstituteforTourismandHotelStudies,Estoril;CIAUD—ResearchCentreforArchitecture,
UrbanismandDesign,LisbonSchoolofArchitecture,UniversidadedeLisboa,Lisboa,Portugal
JessCanose
FoodStudies,FalkSchoolofSustainability&Environment,ChathamUniversity,Pittsburgh,PA,UnitedStates
PaolaCarrabba
Studies,AnalysisandEvaluationsUnit,ENEA,Rome,Italy
AlessioCavicchi
UniversityofMacerata,Macerata,Italy
AngelaColucci
REsilienceLAB;Co.O.Pe.Ra.Te.srl,Pavia,Italy
MassimoCuratella
SupportforDecision-Making—Facilitator,Rome,Italy
JonathanDeutsch
DepartmentofFoodandHospitalityManagement,CollegeofNursingandHealthProfessions,Drexel
University,Philadelphia,PA,UnitedStates
ErnestodiRenzo
DepartmentofHistory,“TorVergata”University,Rome,Italy
DentoniDomenico
MontpellierBusinessSchool,MontpellierResearchinManagement,Montpellier,France
FrancoFassio
UniversityofGastronomicSciences,Pollenzo,Italy
AllieviFrancesca
JAMKUniversityofAppliedSciences,Jyv€askyl€a,Finland;BarillaCentreforFoodandNutrition,Parma,Italy
RecanatiFrancesca
BarillaCentreforFoodandNutrition,Parma,Italy
BenjaminFulton
DepartmentofFoodandHospitalityManagement,CollegeofNursingandHealthProfessions,Drexel
University,Philadelphia,PA,UnitedStates
LucioFumagalli
NationalInstituteofRuralSociology(INSOR),Rome,Italy
JudithGlover
RoyalMelbourneInstituteofTechnology(RMIT),IndustrialDesignProgram,Melbourne,VIC,Australia
MassimoIannetta
BiotechnologiesandAgro-IndustryDivision,ENEA,Rome,Italy
ColinJohnson
SanFranciscoStateUniversity,SanFrancisco,CA,UnitedStates
xv
xvi Contributors
Pila(cid:2)rLadislav
DepartmentofManagement,FacultyofEconomicsandManagement,CzechUniversityofLifeSciences
Prague,Prague,CzechRepublic
GurpinderSinghLalli
UniversityofWolverhampton,Wolverhampton,UnitedKingdom
AdrianLebendiker
UniversityofGeneralSarmiento,LosPolvorines,Argentina
PatriziaMarti
DepartmentofSocial,PoliticalandCognitiveSciences,UniversityofSiena,Siena,Italy
Chalupova´ Martina
DepartmentofManagement,FacultyofEconomicsandManagement,CzechUniversityofLifeSciences
Prague,Prague,CzechRepublic
SoniaMassari
RomaTreUniversity;ISIARomeDesign,Rome,Italy
KellyMcFarland
MasterofScienceinAppliedAnthropology,UniversityofNorthTexas,Denton,TX,UnitedStates
FabioPistella
NationalResearchCouncil(CNR);Passinsieme,Rome,Italy
AnnamariaRecupero
DepartmentofSocial,PoliticalandCognitiveSciences,UniversityofSiena,Siena,Italy
PedroReissig
UniversityofBuenosAires,BuenosAires,Argentina
AlexandraRomey
DepartmentofFoodandHospitalityManagement,CollegeofNursingandHealthProfessions,Drexel
University,Philadelphia,PA,UnitedStates
LuigiRossi
PresidentEmeritusItalianAssociationofGraduatesinAgricultureandForestry(FIDAF),Rome,Italy
FabrizioRufo
DepartmentofEnvironmentalBiology,SapienzaUniversityofRome,Rome,Italy
CristinaSantini
UniversitySanRaffaele,Rome,Italy
PaolaSarcina
MusicandTheatreInternational(M.Th.I.);CerealiaFestival,Rome,Italy
HendrikN.J.Schifferstein
DepartmentofHuman-CenteredDesign,DelftUniversityofTechnology,Delft,TheNetherlands
LucioSepede
Passinsieme,Rome,Italy
LorenzaMariaSganzetta
REsilienceLAB,Pavia;PolytechnicUniversityofMilan(PolitecnicodiMilano),DepartmentofArchitecture
andUrbanStudies,Milan,Italy
NancySnow
OCADUniversity,Toronto,ON,Canada
Contributors xvii
AndreaSonnino
ItalianAssociationofGraduatesinAgricultureandForestry(FIDAF),Rome,Italy
Roj´ıkStanislav
DepartmentofManagement,FacultyofEconomicsandManagement,CzechUniversityofLifeSciences
Prague,Prague,CzechRepublic
MarcoValentec
SupportforDecision-Making—Facilitator,Malmo,Sweden
MarialbaVentricelli
DepartmentofEnvironmentalBiology,SapienzaUniversityofRome,Rome,Italy
MandeeWieand
DepartmentofFoodandHospitalityManagement,CollegeofNursingandHealthProfessions,Drexel
University,Philadelphia,PA,UnitedStates
PROLOGUE1
food | FUTURE | design
SonjaStummererandMartinHablesreiter
Honey&bunny
Design follows sustainability?
Over the past few decades, food design has established itself as a sep-
arate area within the field of design. This subfield, though still quite small,
existson theperimeters of theinternational designdiscoursebut continues
togrow.Itsprotagonistsenjoyalotofmediaattention,withthespotlighton
largeconferencestagesandincreasingacademicacceptance.Moreandmore
renowneduniversitiesareestablishingfooddesignstudiesandcourses.Exhi-
bitions, conferences, publications, and international networks emerge. In
short, food design has transformed itself from a belittled curiosity into an
aspiringdesigndiscipline.Itisprobablytheoldestdesigndisciplineinexis-
tence and has now become a serious design field. Food design is booming.
Thereisnolongeraquestionofwhetherornotfooddesignexists.Food
designersnolongerneedtojustifytheirexistence,norwilltheyneedtowish
for absolution of responsibility from design theorists. On the contrary,
through our past work, we food designers have made it clear to the design
worldthatthedesignoffood,alongwitharchitectureandfashion, belongs
tothebasicdesigngenres.Justlikethedesignoflivingspaceorclothing,the
designoffoodanddrinksalsoconcernsitselfwiththeculturalimplementa-
tion of primary survival necessities.
Food design is industrial design
Foodisdesigned.Withtheexceptionofberriespickedinthejungleor
mushroomscollectedintheforest,foodisprocessedandtreatedbyhumans;
fromcultivationtoportioning.Designersareexcludedfromthemajorityof
thesedesignprocesses,whichare,dependingoncultureandregion,consid-
erablyindustrial.Inthemid-19thcentury,whentheworld’sfirstconveyor
belt began to turn in Chicago, United States, there were no automobiles,
tools,orothertechnicalconsumergoodsonit.Instead,itcarriedcattlehal-
ves. The conveyor belt was developed for meat processing in the Chicago
xix
xx foodjFUTUREjdesign
slaughterhouses,whichensuredaswellaspushedaheadthesupplyofmeatto
the growing city.
Todaywe mainlyeat “processed food,”meaning thatalmost everycal-
orieweconsumehaspassedthroughoneormoreindustrialfacilities.Incon-
trast to furniture, lamps, textiles, or shoes, most of which are still
handcrafted, albeit more commonly in the Far East, food, as it is found in
supermarkets, is mass produced and mass consumed. In the western indus-
trial nations, we eat industrial design.
Industrial food design is part of the Western, civilized life model. The
belief in continued economic growth inevitably results in a continual
increaseinsalesandthusinproduction.Theconstantavailabilityofallprod-
uctsthattheglobalized"market"providesconsumerswithincludesalledible
productsfor thewealthierpartof humanity.Thiscycleofmassproduction
and mass consumption becomes visible in, for example, a supermarket: a
grocerystorethatprovidesthesame,thoughseeminglyhuge,varietyoffood
for those who can afford it every day of the year, every hour, and every-
where. This oversupply of food is not tied to local or seasonal agricultural
conditions on site. The globalized food market allows grapes, tomatoes,
meat, and so on to be ready for sale any day of the year in as consistent a
quantity and quality as possible. Grapes or tomatoes are always in season
somewhere in the world, and if they are not in season in Central Europe,
they are in Argentina or South Africa. As far as the quality is concerned,
the origin of the food is as irrelevant as cultivation or working conditions,
pollutionorsoilerosion.Thesupermarketistheexhibitionandretailspace
ofanindustrializedandglobalizedfoodsupplysystemandakeydrivingforce
behind this system is food design.
Do we want to be industrial FOODdesigners?
Unlikemostother(design)objects,foodisanindispensableitem.If,in
times of overconsumption and hyperconsumption, the design legitimately
questions what things people really need, food turns out to be one of the
few items we actually need to survive. However, in Western countries,
we are currently physically and psychologically further away from the
sources of our calories (earth, water, and agriculture) than ever. Food is a
consumer good that is available in abundance and it is treated as such. Up
to30%offoodinEuropeisthrownawaysomewherebetweenproduction
and consumption.
foodjFUTUREjdesign xxi
The question of daily nutrition is not only related to diets, recipes, or
gourmet criticism, but also to effects on the ecosystem, as well as to social
and economic processes. What and how we eat is directly linked to
CO emissions,waterandlanduse,energy,andtransportsystems.Agricul-
2
ture as the production site of our food causes around 30% of global
CO emissions and uses about 70% of the total fresh water supply. Against
2
these figures, it becomes clear why food waste, for instance, is not only a
moral but also a very concrete, ecological problem.
If we as food designers want to include sustainability in our work as
a design parameter, we must fundamentally question the system of
steady economic growth, overproduction, and mass consumption. Given
the current social, political, economic, and ecological developments, our
culture and our food culture in particular require reorientation. Hence,
the connection between resource consumption and food production is
clearlyaresultoftheincreasingworldpopulationaswellasrisingmeatcon-
sumption.Additionally,economicgrowthpressureisleadingtoanincrease
in production.
Designisanexperiment,freethinking,andthefuture.Issuessuchascli-
mate change, social inequalities, or waste production cannot be excluded
fromareflecteddiscourseonfooddesign.Whiledesignerscontributedsig-
nificantly to the digital revolution just a few years ago with their concepts
and solutions, today they could support a trend toward a more conscious
approachtojustice,fairness,resources,andpollution;inshort,a“sustainable
revolution.”
Asfooddesigners,wesitatthepivotofculture,interaction,andobject.
Food design is the interface of different disciplines as well as the creative
space between idea, production, market, and consumption. This is exactly
where we have to deal with the handling of resources as well as unwanted
sideeffects(externalities),laborrights,andtheincreasinginfluenceofdigital
spaces. All of this requires joy in experimentation, transdisciplinary and
international cooperation, and cooperation with science and research
through design. Design is a powerful tool. We should be aware of that.
And whichfieldof designwould bebettersuited toexperimentallydiscuss
sustainabledesignthanfooddesign?Ouranswertothetheoreticalresearch
and efforts to prove climate change, to explain refugee flows, or to justify
ecologicalandsocialsustainabilityisthequestionofhowcreativeandinter-
ventionist means can be used to initiate changes in behavior and mindsets
toward food. It is not to the industry, but to the democratic society that
we owe our thoughts, findings, and creations.