THEORY

Iceberg model

Event

Patterns

Structures

Mental modes

1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally every year

As the world population grew so did the amount of food waste, and when business-as-usual is to be continued both the population and food waste will keep increasing

In western society consumers can obtain food very easily and takes it for granted. There is no immediate incentive to consume more sustainable as its negative consequences are less visible

For retailers it also more convenient/cheaper to throw away food that to redistribute still good food to places where it is needed

Necessity to fulfill our basic needs (drinking/eating) and not caring for its consequences that contribute to the climate crisis (because of lack of awareness and other reasons)

System mapping

Local/simplified food system

Essay

Climate change is often portrayed as a global problem we all have contributed to. While in fact, only a small percentage of mostly white rich western countries are responsible for and benefit from the produced conditions. On top of that, the consequences of the Climate Crisis are affecting some countries, especially those in the Global South, more than others (Pulido, 2017). Among many other actions needed for Climate mitigation, food waste should be reduced, and awareness should be spread about the consequences that many of us are not experiencing but that are happening. In most Western countries consumption and so eating and throwing away lots of food is natural, we are used to the access to an abundance of food, which we take for granted.

The already needed amount of food produced today has to be increased by at least 60% to meet the demand of the population in the 2100 (FAO, 2016), which is expected to grow to an amount of almost 11 billion people (UN, 2019). With that, the contribution of the food industry to climate change will also increases, which already almost accounts for one-quarter of human-induced greenhouse gas emission (IPCC, 2018), not yet counting the emissions from needed transport and things like the production of packaging (IPCC, 2018). And of all the food that is produced about one third is wasted, that is a total of approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food wasted every year (UN environment). Problematic is that for retailers for example it is more convenient and especially cheaper to throw away good food that to redistribute it to places where it is still needed (Stuart & Jarosz, 2017).

We as designers and artists can find creative solutions that can contribute to a more sustainable future. Finding new ways to reuse our food waste so that we can positively influence the food system and the environment. One way, which is already largely used, is that it can be used for composting to help grow new food (FAO, 2003). During this practice, I specifically researched different projects that are focused on creating new sustainable and recyclable materials that are made from food waste. Examples of these materials are paper and bioplastics or the creation of natural inks for which I looked into projects by for example Emma Sicher, Fruitleather Rotterdam, Papierlab among others. My research showed that bioplastics is a bit chemically oriented, some include growing bacteria and algae. I, therefore, focused more on the process of making paper from fruit and vegetable waste. This is possible because they contain cellulose, a plant fiber that is very suitable for papermaking (Szymanska-Chargot et al., 2017). Next, these new materials can then be used to create packaging to be used in supermarkets or tableware for snack bars and events. The packaging will not only be more sustainable and biodegradable, but it will also help to reduce the production of other less sustainable/more polluting materials that are otherwise needed for packaging, like plastic. By using natural inks packages can be made more attractive and it will also allow to print information or illustrations on them that help to spread the very needed awareness to the consumer.

Literature

UN Environment. https://www.unenvironment.org/thinkeatsave/get-informed/worldwide-food-waste
United Nations (2019). World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights. New York.
IPCC (2018). Global warming of 1.5C: Summary for Policymakers.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the united nations. (2016).
Climate change and food security: risks and responses. Retrieved March 26, 2020, from http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5188e.pdf
FAO (2003). On-farm composting methods. In Land and water discussion paper
Pulido, L. (2017). Racism and the Anthropocene. In Future Remains (pp. 116 -128).
Stuart, T. & Jarosz, D. (2017). Supermarkets should be cutting food waste, not relying on charities. In The Guardian.
Szymanska-Chargot, M., Chylińska, M., Gdula, K., Kozioł, A. &
Zdunek, A. (2017). Isolation and Characterization of Cellulose from Different Fruit and Vegetable Pomaces. Polymers. 9. 495. 10.3390/polym9100495.