REPORT: PROVOCATIVE SEMINAR ON FOOD

In the context of Age of Wonder-land, a social innovation program which is jointly developed by Hivos, Baltan Laboratories and the Dutch Design Week, the “Provocative Seminar on Food: Challenging our Current Food System” took place at the Natlab on May 21st. Diffe-rent experts from around the world reflected on the issues at stake and gave their perspectives on the food system in 2020.

Carol Gribnau, director of Hivos Green Society Program started the evening by stating that the current food system is (1) highly unequal, with many of those producing at the same time being those that are food insecure, (2) unhealthy, with large numbers of people being undernourished or overweighed, and (3) highly unsustainable; we are literally eating our planet. What is our responsibility? Experts do agree on the problems but do not seem to come to an agreement on the solutions. But food is not just the domain of experts. We as human beings, as citizens, consu-mers, or parents can make choices that promote a healthy and sustai-

nable future. Combining the expert and human perspective could bridge the gap between theory and practice, between agreeing on pro-blems but also on solutions. New movements, social enterprises and business models increasingly care about the food we eat. Showing us a story of hope because human beings might have created the pro-blems, human beings are also able to solve them.

Arne Hendriks, artist, curator and ambassador of the Dutch Design Week 2014 also emphasized the food-hope relation. His picture of a family cooking food on an impro-vised stove, right after the tsunami in 2004, showed how a little bit of food reinstalled culture and huma-nity. It identifies food as the primary medium through which we express our humanity. The picture shows our interaction with food, its pre-sence, distribution and preparation,

Carol Gribnau, Arne Hendriks and Koert van Mensvoort

and its symbolic strength in times of crises as well as abundance. Arne sees each single one of our individual food-related gestures as part of a global piece of performan-ce art. We will need to overcome our fear and disbelief that we can actually do something. His insights stress that we have to find ways to embrace consuming less than we are used to. By start telling our good stories we may start the change needed.

Between the speakers the special moderator Koert van Mensvoort, artist and philosopher, father of the Next Nature Concept and ambas-sador of Dutch Design Week 2015 reflected on the different presenta-tions. Since eating is about intro-ducing something from the outside world into our body, he defines eating as one of the most intimate acts. With cooking as the start he further highlighted the relation between food and technology. Co-oking allowed us to consume more calories in less time contributing to a quicker brain development.

Klaas de Vries, Advisor Food & Nutrition Security and Private Sector Development at Centre for Development Innovation in Wage-ningen, introduced the link between the concept of nutrition security and food security. It is not just about the quantity of food needed,

but also about the nutrients needed by our body to grow properly and be healthy. Worldwide 805 million people are chronically undernou-rished, and the most affected are children: there are 600 malnutrition related deaths per hour and 18 million babies born physically and mentally impaired. Since most of the people dealing with malnutrition problems depend largely on agri-culture for their sustenance, Klaas suggested the possible solution of linking nutrition with agriculture and investing in this linkage. Such an investment is very cost effective, meaning 1 euro invested in nutrition will pay itself back 16 times and could therefore change the food sy-stem. The private sector, being the largest food producer, is one of the

important potential changemakers.

Yoyo Yogasmana, one of the ar-tists from Age of Wonderland, gave a complete different perspective on our food system by explaining how in his small village agriculture is linked to ancient wisdom. One of his inspiring statements was about how “revisiting the past can help us to see the glimpse of our future”. For example the villagers’ ancient seasonal calendar system, the Pra-nata Mangsa, tells them when to plant and when insects will come. With this information they can avoid the use of pesticides. Rice is seen as a sacred food as it represents life; still 160 rice varieties are present in his community of around 30.000 people. As you do not sell life, rice is not sold by the villagers. As nature gives the people their food it is our duty as human beings to nurture and protect the whole living creature in the universe with knowledge and kindness. Looking at the past and its eco-logical intelligence can make us question our present behaviour towards the planet. However, there are also new technological innova-tions applied to agriculture that can help towards a sustainable future. Gus van der Feltz, Global Director City Farming at Philips, reflected on their City Farming concept of indoor farms to grow vegetables locally in a sustainable way. City

Arne Hendriks, artist, curator and ambassador of Dutch Design Week 2014

Yoyo Yogasmana, an Indonesian artist from Age of Wonderland program

farms grow plants by the light and warmth of led lamps and water of a hydraulic system. It is developed to face urgent global challenges as the growing population, urba-nization, availability of water, and food safety and accessibility. City farming is real farming and it can use the space very efficient, the water use can be reduced by 90%, there’s no use of pesticides, and perhaps most importantly, food is grown locally. The challenge of this technology is to make it less expen-sive and useful for specific types of crops so that it can also be applied in different contexts and countries.

Maria Teresa Nogales, also one of the participants of Age of Wonder-land and director of the NGO Al-

ternativas, which generates sustai-nable approaches to greater food security in Bolivia, closed the semi-nar with some striking unsustaina-ble examples in the Bolivian food system. In the past Bolivians were great consumers of quinoa, but to-day they stopped eating it because they export it at high prices all over the world. Now they spend their money on –often imported- pasta, rice, and bread, foods that make them feel full and satisfied but lack the proteins quinoa provided them. Furthermore large parts of the Bolivian landscape are used for the production of soy for biofuel. As a result of all this, nowadays Bolivia is importing more than 60% of their food from other countries, making it very dependent and vulnerable

for market changes, reducing its overall food security. By showing her work Maria Teresa highlighted the importance of involving cross-disciplinary actors to cooperatively build a food movement.

The variety of speakers and points of view during the seminar stres-sed the necessity of dealing with food related issues in an interdisci-plinary and intercultural way. We are facing global problems which require global answers. However, knowledge and solutions brought from different perspectives can provide an important part to these answers. Everyone should be able to provide their insights and models to find new solutions.

By interacting with the audien-ce the seminar showed that it is possible to deepen the knowledge being open minded and dare to look at alternative narratives. The urgency pushes us to creatively work and think together, to change the way we see our food systems, our nature and our presence in this world. The playful facilitation of the seminar created a deep exchange of, sometimes very contrasting point of views, but always reflecting food as a story of hope, connection with others and a way to positively shape our society.

Report by Lorenzo GerbiPictures by Sas Schilten

Gus van der Feltz, Global Director City Farming at Philips

Participants expressing their opinions through green and red cardboards