Ever thought about the future of our food? Philips Design's latest Design Probe – ‘Food’ – has taken a provocative and unconventional look at subjects that could have a profound effect on the way we eat and source our food 15-20 years from now.
"We were very interested in new ways of looking at what we eat and the processes that food undergoes before we consume it," says Clive vanHeerden, Senior Director of design-led innovation at Philips Design. "After all, food is one of the most fundamental issues in all our lives." These investigations, like other probe projects, examine the possible consequences of various (long-range) social trends and 'weak signals' emerging from the margins of society.
In the case of food, this involved tracking and interpreting issues like the shift in emphasis from curative to preventative medicine, the growth in popularity of organic produce, implications of genetic modification, land use patterns in growing what we eat, the threat of serious shortages, and rising food prices. The result was an extension to Philips Design's ongoing design probes program with three new projects; Diagnostic Kitchen, Food Creation and Home Farming.
Proper analysis of our diets
The first project, Diagnostic Kitchen, allows people to take a much more accurate and personally relevant look at what they eat. "At the moment we have to rely on information like 'recommended daily intake'," says Clive, "but this is far too general." The idea is to make it possible to scan food and analyze how well its contents match your specific nutritional needs, for instance by linking it to your personal metabolic pattern. By using a ‘Nutrition monitor’, consisting of a scanning ‘wand’ and swallowable sensor, you could determine exactly what and how much you should eat to match your digestive health and nutritional requirements at that moment in time.
"If four people sit down to eat the same food, they could each get very different readings about how suitable it was," he continues. "For instance, one of them maybe hasn't had had enough salt that day, so knows to add some. Another may discover that eating the entire meal would take them beyond their glycemic load requirement.” It would also be possible to use the monitor to analyze food in the shops before deciding whether to buy it or not. All of this would obviously be of enormous benefit for those trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and would give everyone a window on their personal health status that simply isn't available at the moment.
'Printing food'
The second exploration area, ‘Food Creation’, has been inspired by the so-called 'molecular gastronomists.' These chefs deconstruct food and then reassemble it in completely different ways, so for instance you could be served carrot as foam or parmesan cheese as a strand of spaghetti. According to Clive. "This got us very interested. We thought it would be worthwhile to examine how this could be applied to the domestic environment."
This led to the concept of a 'food printer', which would essentially accept various edible ingredients and then combine and ‘print’ them in the desired shape and consistency, in much the same way as stereolithographic printers create 3-D representations of product concepts. "Molecular gastronomists use laboratory-style machinery like circulation baths, centrifuges, vacuum presses and dehydration units to make their creations," he continues. "Our idea was to come up with a similarly innovative piece of equipment for the home kitchen." The nutritional value and relevance of what was being 'printed' could be adjusted based on input from the nutrition monitor from the diagnostic kitchen, so the end result has dietary relevance as well as aesthetic appeal.
Growing food in the living room
The third project, Home Farming, explores growing at least part of your daily calorific requirement inside your house. "People are increasingly concerned about how their food has been manipulated and processed, genetic modification, environmental degradation through monoculture, the distance food travels before reaching their plates, growing shortages and many other related issues," says Clive. "One way of addressing such legitimate concerns is to source the food yourself by having a biosphere in your living room."
This ’Biosphere home farm’ has been designed to occupy a minimum of floor space and instead to stack the various mini-ecosystems on top of each other. It contains fish, crustaceans, algae and edible plants, all interdependent and in balance with each other. Water filtration, recycling of nutrients and optimum use of sunlight are all central to its appeal. "We chose an indoor solution because many hundreds of millions of people across the world don't have the luxury of a back garden," adds vanHeerden. "We want to make it possible for families, more or less regardless of how they live, to be at least partly self-sufficient."
Stimulating discussion
The three concepts were shown for the first time to the public at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, the Netherlands in October 2008. They will also be showcased on Second Life, YouTube and in exhibitions. The intention, as with all projects in the Design Probe program, is to elicit reaction and stimulate discussion which can be used to further refine the ideas. "The situation regarding food is never static," says Clive. "In very broad terms, humans basically went from eating fresh produce to consuming processed food. Initially this was seen as progress, but then many people weren't so sure. So you then saw the rise of more natural, organic, vegetarian and more experimental diets. Through these probes we are offering glimpses of what could come next."
About the probes program
The Philips Design Probes program is a unique foresighting initiative which tracks emerging developments in five main areas - politics, economics, environment, technology and culture. The outcomes of this 'far-future' research are used to identify systemic shifts that could affect business in years to come and that could lead to new areas in which to develop intellectual property.
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