DESIGN FUTURES
Designing a Response to the C19-Food Industry Correlation
Social distancing provides inspiration to reflect on our food habits. In this article, I talk about food production and the way we treat animals as bodies for profit, and how this relates to the current epidemic.
This global pandemic has many things to teach us. One of those is that we have to reflect on the consequences of exploiting wild creatures for food (and other secondary needs). We are facing the consequences of forcing species, normally separated by thousands of kilometers, into terrible conditions. With researchers confirming that the virus is passed from animals to humans, China is now acknowledging it is necessary to address its relationship with to prevent another outbreak.
This has happened before. In 2003 when civets, and snakes were banned after they were discovered to have likely transferred the SARS virus to humans [1]. We have other examples in the past, with domesticated species like cows. For example, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow disease. At that time, the warning was about how animal welfare and consequently the quality of the food deriving from it, go hand in hand.
Instead of as living beings that can feel pain and distress, billions of animals enter factory-like facilities as raw materials and transformed into as products. A mass production of bodies, shaped by according to the needs of the market. All this so we can pump vaccines, antibiotics, and hormones in those bodies to make an increasingly attractive product for the market.
The current global phenomenon we are living could be an occasion to speed up the process of rethinking our predatory attitude towards other species.
The over-consumption of meat from intensive farming is increasingly being recognized as a serious problem. We know its ecological impact, but because the consequences are indirect, we are slow in action. The current pandemic instead is touching us directly, however.
I use “we” because we are planetary species. We should think as a planetary species. We should rapidly evolve the way we procure food and rethink what we eat. We need to invest into cellular agriculture, or the way to produce agricultural products from cell cultures rather than whole plants or animals. This is broader than food, because cell-based production could include leather, silk, and other dairy products. But let’s focus on food.
We need to invest into cellular agriculture, or the way to produce agricultural products from cell cultures rather than whole plants or animals.
Future Scenarios
As designers, we construct scenarios to channel the possible trajectories of design concepts to develop potential projects. This is also what we do intensively with our students of the foundation studio. In this course, they use design fiction as a primary mode of research to set the stage to understand and question near-future design scenarios.
Like our students, I will define a scenario in three steps to envision a possible development of the food industry and its impact on the socio-urban environment.
Step one. From feedlots and slaughterhouses to cultured factories
Many people say that veganism is the future. I always respected the vegan kitchen, as I consider it a great expression of human creativity and technology: the capacity to transform something (apparently) raw into something with sophistication. To me seems much more than just cooking a piece of meat. But this is another story, let’s go back to the idea of cellular agriculture mentioned before.
This is the next step we have in front of us, and it is exciting — we can use biotechnology to create clean meat, real meat that is grown from animal cells, without any need of raising and slaughtering entire creatures.
As said above, the process has already started, it is almost the present [2]. Sure, it is not only a matter of tech but also regulation [3], action [4] and public perception. For sure it is not an easy change and we’ll need time [5] but in the end, we are already eating artificial food. The food itself is technology, if we change perspective, it shouldn’t be a problem to eat artificial meat. Maybe the problem is really about the name. After all, we are already doing so when we call pork, a piece of meat of a domestic pig.
Step two. From meat factories to local bioreactors. The rise of new social spaces
Once the technology is stable, the factory model is not necessary anymore. Instead of spending money on logistics to move the end product, it would be much more advantageous to distribute the facilities in a capillary way and de-localize production. I want to stretch the concept a little bit. In supermarkets, we usually have the butchery, where the specialists may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale. The same things could happen for vegetables and other products like fruits with the application of vertical farming. Instead of places just for storage and display, Supermarkets can become growing facilities specialized in growing different techniques. From soil-less controlled farming techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics to optimize plant growth, to bio-labs equipped with the suspension bioreactors for the cell proliferation and the scaffolding trays for the cell maturation to optimize lab-grown meat.
I remember as a child, I often followed my grandmother when she went shopping. She always went to the same shop near her house. She had a personal relationship with the clerks and often ordered particular products to then pick them up the next time. I see the similarities with this system. Imagine that you order your food in advance so production is tailored to to demand. It is a different way to consume. You are aware of the time involved with production. I believe this can also add to perceived value of the product itself. This could be crucial to redefine our cities, cities able to produce the needed food resources. The diffusion would be able to construct super-local production and consumption loops, and aware citizens.
AI and robotics are fundamental to maintain and sustain the system, artificial assistants enabling a possible interaction between the inhabitants of the building and the “growing pods”
Maybe with time, some private buildings can buy these technologies to offer a special service for its community, inside the building itself, in a smaller format. Let’s imagine then some parts of the new buildings are dedicated to vertical farming and meat growth. AI and robotics are fundamental to maintain and sustain the system, artificial assistants enabling a possible interaction between the inhabitants of the building and the “growing pods” (poetic license). These spaces are becoming social spaces, where people can learn about the food that is growing, again for a more conscious food production and consumption.
Step three. Personalized nutrition and domestic space
Miniaturization is always the next step in technological evolution. Applying this concept to the topic and instead of large facilities, designed to satisfy the needs of large communities, let’s imagine domestic bioreactors and vertical farms for family usage, adapted to grow plants and meat when we need as we need. This could evolve the idea we have of the kitchen — from a space dedicated to the preparation of food to a space for growing it. Imagine the huge reduction of food packaging needed and as a consequence of the waste produced daily in our homes.
This could evolve the idea we have of the kitchen — from a space dedicated to the preparation of food to a space for growing it.
Let’s think that if we can then fine-tune the growing process we would be able to control and select the proper nutrients for a customized diet according to our age or health condition. A constant health monitoring would then close the loop, feeding information to the sentient kitchen, that would know what you need. But this is opening up another story, that again, this global pandemic is raising[6]. Let’s stay in the realm of our domestic space. What does it mean if we can also grow the food in our houses? How this would change the living space and its hierarchy? Would this de-materialize the kitchen into a series of appliances that are camouflaged in the living space?
Maybe this is pushing too much a romantic view where Is this like going back to a countryside-like life, where the apartments, the houses become a kind of a new indoor garden with a domesticated nature, where the plants are inhabiting the house with us giving color, probably a better air, good smells and food. Not sure about the meat in this picture. Why not integrate glass cabinets into this scene, where we witness the growth of cell cultures in the same way we see plants growing?
A revolution in food production, with emerging technological sophistication, will redefine our relationship with food. And all this will change us again because as we know, we are what we eat. We will then face new problems caused by this new system. But I will stop here, I’m not a sci-fi writer.
N O T E S
1 Ben Wescott and Shawn Deng, “China has made eating wild animals illegal after the coronavirus outbreak. But ending the trade won’t be easy”, CNN, March 6, 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/05/asia/china-coronavirus-wildlife-consumption-ban-intl-hnk/index.html
2 Natasha Foote, “Cultured meat could be on the EU market ‘as early as 2022’ ”, Euractiv, January 16, 2020, ttps://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/cultured-meat-could-be-on-the-eu-market-as-early-as-2022/
3 Andrew Thompson, “Does Lab-grown Food Have the Power to Transform an Industry?”, Industry Week, April 12, 2019, https://www.industryweek.com/the-economy/article/22027450/does-labgrown-food-have-the-power-to-transform-an-industry
4 Florence Schulz, “Could Germany impose a tax on meat?”, Euractiv, January 20, 2020, https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/could-germany-impose-a-tax-on-meat/
5 “We have billions of animals that are being raised and are being eaten. If you can just reduce that 10%, 20% it would be massive on the environment, but we don’t expect that to be done within 10 years. The only thing that is now on our horizon is just stopping the growth of animal consumption. If we can just do that it will be a huge win.” Daan Luining of the Dutch startup Meatable in
Clara Rodriguez Fernandez, “You Will Be Eating Lab-Grown Meat Soon: Here’s What You Need to Know”, Labiotech, February 4, 2020, https://www.labiotech.eu/features/cultured-meat-industry/
6 I’m referring here to the controversial mapping and publication of infected patients’ movements in South Korea.
Mark Zastrow, “South Korea is reporting intimate details of COVID-19 cases: has it helped?”, Nature, March 18, 2020, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00740-y
