Reports

Activities and insights from the first pilot of ATARCA Food Futures concept conducted as workshop series for the ‘Sustainable Consumption MOOC’ to test the usability and functionality of the app which generates ‘Participation and Foodprint tokens’.

An index is a method of comparison of different variables or groups of variables, and can also be used to indicate performance or impact in time and space. A framework does not necessarily provide means of comparison, but rather an approach to view systems and relations, and to inform strategies for change. In the space of sustainability and food futures, indexes and frameworks might share similar functionalities and goals. They do not tell us how to solve sustainability challenges, but instead, they inform decision making, catalyse discussions, facilitate actions, and provide feedback for policy changes. 

The daily meal on a modern individual’s plate travels a complex path and tracing its journey can present a serious challenge1 . Yet there is a growing tradition of demanding transparency and reconnection to food value chains, given that groceries’ ambiguities (ethical and environmental, for instance) often conceal production realities from our consciousness and cognition2. This report looks at three current strategies of answering such demand for accountability and responsible production processes: public bureaucracy, certification systems, and blockchain technology.

OVERVIEW OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY IN TRACING FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

In contemporary civil societies, consumers have far greater access to food items despite the season or location. Such lengthened food supply chains from farm to fork have resulted in consumers’ and citizens’ alienation from the journey of their food. As a consequence of such disconnection to the land, people and resources level in the developed countries1 . As we experience the 4th Industrial revolution, where the boundaries between the physical, digital and biological are blurring, innovative blockchain technology is able to demystify the opacity in the food supply chain.

GOAL
Public engagement to develop a self-curated anti-rival index to be built as a prototype for a Food Futures to increase wellbeing and to reduce suffering.

WHAT WAS DONE
To engage participants in discussions and co-creation of a self-curated food sustainability and wellbeing index, we had developed an interactive workshop with two activities designed as ‘provo’-types that provoked thinking about food hyper-transparency and created tools to decrease suffering and increase wellbeing.