Early in November I was pleased to join colleagues from all over the world in Barcelona at EFOOD24 –  the fourth International Food Design and Food Studies conference where experts and innovators from multiple disciplines (academia, research, design, industry, and gastronomy) gathered to “shape the future of food in both physical and digital spaces.”

The EFOOD conferences provide the creative space for participants to collaboratively engage on the essential task of re-thinking and re-designing our food systems such that we can provide sufficient healthy food for all global citizens in an equitable manner within planetary boundaries. 

With a theme of Designing for Phygital Food Systems, EFOOD24 connected the physical and digital elements in the food sector in multiple ways with the potential to provide social, environmental, and financial benefits.  As noted by the organizers, phygital solutions can:

  • Optimize supply chain efficiency through data analytics, precision farming techniques, and smart logistics, allowing for resource optimization and waste reduction (and therefore reduced environmental externalities).
  • Raise awareness about food provenance, environmentally friendly choices, and ethical consumption.

These elements of waste reduction and responsible consumption and production go to the heart of Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns) and specifically Target 12.3, which calls for halving food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030 and reducing food losses along production and supply chains.

The EFOOD conferences are the product of FORK (Food Design for Opportunities, Research and Knowledge), a global think tank of design leaders seeking to rethink and reframe global food systems and the human diet founded by Mariana Eidler, Ricardo Bonacho, Pedro Alvarez, and Sonia Massari.  FORK’s four pillars include Research and Education, Food supply chain and food industry, Gastronomy, and Food design. 

Notably, FORK’s manifesto states that food is searching for nine elements – integrity, transparency, trust, passion, compassion, diversity, flexibility, creativity, and equality – and that the FORK organization is ready to provide them through the mediation of design.

All of these elements were in place at EFOOD24.

Building on all of the groundwork provided by FORK to date, there was an underlying theme at EFOOD24 of bringing more clarity to the concept of food design, and in turn providing a clearer definition of the role of the food designer and what that title means for external stakeholders –  such as industry, policymakers, and NGOs – with the ultimate goal of creating a strong market for food designers.

On that score, let me weigh in now:  the world needs food designers.

As was evident at EFOOD24, these individuals possess the desire and transformational focus to lead progress toward a sustainable, regenerative, equitable global food system – one in which we provide sufficient nutritious food for 10 billion global citizens by 2050 within planetary boundaries.

The Case for Urgency

And there is great urgency needed for this transformation, as the food system is critically linked to multiple SDG challenges, including hunger, nutrition, food loss and waste, emissions, biodiversity loss, deforestation, water security, and more – and progress on these Goals has stalled, at best. 

For example, the 2024 SOFI report states that roughly 750 million citizens faced hunger in 2023 (one of eleven people globally, and one out of every five in Africa).  Further, the global prevalence of undernourishment (POU) remained high at 9.1% of the world’s population, up from 7.5% in 2019.  And in terms of equity, more than one-third of global citizens (about 2.8 billion) were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2022.   

At the same time, UNEP notes that the world wasted 1.05 billion tonnes of food in the retail, foodservice, and consumer segments in 2022, equivalent to 19% of food available for consumers (on top of the estimated 13% of food lost in the food supply chain from post-harvest to retail) while also consuming roughly 30% of the world’s agricultural land. 

The food system is also a major contributor to global warming, accounting for 34% of annual GHG emissions, while WWF notes that food loss and waste alone accounts for 10% of global emissions and is “a main driver of the loss of forests, grasslands, and other critical wildlife habitats” while also depleting water supplies.  Indeed, the Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) notes that global agriculture consumes 70% of the world’s freshwater withdrawals, while WWF estimates that 66 trillion gallons of water are consumed in food that is lost or wasted annually.

Last, the food system consumes myriad resources, along with millions of tonnes of plastics, which pollute land and ocean environments and enter the food chain in the form of harmful microplastics. 

A Frame for (Design) Change

Clearly, we need new perspectives, and passion, to accelerate progress on these critical challenges, and food designers are poised to lead change in multiple sectors. 

Notably, Elisava, the host location for EFOOD24, now offers a degree program (Bachelor in Design for Food Systems) in which students are trained with a transdisciplinary lens on multiple topics at the intersection of food and design, thus preparing them to aid in the development of a more sustainable food system.

Coming on the heels of Climate Week, the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, World Food Day, and continued signals of climate-driven environmental destruction – including the devastating flooding in nearby Valencia (which received one year’s worth of rain in eight hours) just prior to the conference – the timing of EFOOD24 and its mission of driving positive food system change was especially significant.

The conference organizers provided an inspirational framework for positive change, challenging  participants from multiple disciplines with the following question:  Do you have a project that will change the way future generations of consumers, actors and stakeholders work and think about food?

The event included a series of posters, prototypes, papers, presentations, keynote talks, and workgroups which provided scores of takeaways and deep inspiration for all participants, with some examples detailed below:

Posters

A wall of vivid posters showcased numerous innovative and impactful projects developed by the food designers at EFOOD24 addressing topics such as food insecurity, food waste reduction,  regenerative agriculture, circularity, plastics reduction, gastronomic performance, equity, connectivity, and education. 

For example, one poster showcased the transformation of pasta into sustainable packaging to reduce the environmental footprint of traditional packaging and increase circularity.  Another (entitled What is Not Seen) described a project to bring visibility to the excessive amount of plastic film waste that is generated in food operations while also transforming that waste into reusable plastic lids for food containers.

Other posters highlighted the development of specific mobile models, such as La Combi Rosa, a “functional gastronomic lab that empowers people to lead healthier lives in a fun and delicious way.”  Another (Itinerante, Street Food Re-design) showcased the design of an improved tricycle solution to enable mobile tamale vendors in Mexico to operate in a more efficient and hygienic manner. 

Regarding education and behavior change, one poster (Sexy Beans, Landscape 2065) described a project to change attitudes to engender increased consumption of beans, while another highlighted the Life Climate Smart Chefs Project, a European Union initiative designed to leverage chefs in promoting low-emission, nutritious and affordable diets while also elevating discussion of the connection between food and climate.  A third (Food Design for Enabling Regenerative Agriculture) described a food design “bootcamp” project focused on answering how food design can be applied to develop effective systems for promoting regenerative agriculture through education, communication, and certification services.

Displays and Prototypes

A large space was devoted to displays and prototypes addressing various food system topics where technology was interspersed with tradition.  One display (Talking Breads) addressed the high level of bread waste in countries around the world, exploring ways in which technology (such as digital imprints) could be harnessed to inform consumers of how and when to take action (ex. freezing, blitzing, making bread pudding) to ensure consumption versus waste.  Another display highlighted a design research project on edible food containers for finger food to enhance nutrition and increase circularity, while others showcased sustainable cooking molds and a food sharing App.  In addition, a 3D food printer demonstrated how culinarians could utilize this innovative technology to produce creative dessert products.  

And amid all of these technological innovations, Sonia Massari’s Nonna Pina vs. AI: The Heart of a Recipe, showcased handwritten recipes (memory artifacts) from her grandmother in a project which explored the relationship between food, memory and technology and contrasted those powerful human elements with the precision and unemotional nature of artificial intelligence. 

Paper Discussions

The authors of multiple projects discussed their research in numerous breakout sessions focused on design for sustainability, social innovation, gastronomy, nutrition, education, and more.  For example, Mariana Costa described Future Foodies, a workshop model designed to help youth “explore speculative thinking for sustainable foods” while also providing educators with tools to aid students in developing future food scenarios.  The AI-generated images from the student concepts (ex. Jellyfish Sushi, Cactus Ice Cream) are powerful, revealing how such engagement with students (ages 8-16) can enhance their food literacy and help them become influencers for a sustainable food system.

Maria Manfroni described Venice lagoon sitopia: Design for hyperlocal food ecologies, a project in which students connected with local stakeholders and used hyperlocal design practices and AI technology to address the fragility of the Venice lagoon.

Andrea Magnani of Barilla Foundation discussed the Life Climate Smart Chefs project, noting that chefs can be game changers in accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy by influencing climate-smart cooking and eating.  He described the project’s online training course, which has modules covering topics such as sustainable diets, food waste, and the Mediterranean diet, along with its digital Foodprint tool (which helps chefs assess the environmental impact of their recipes) and their Vision 2030 initiative. 

Keynotes

EFOOD24 included a number of excellent Keynote talks as well.

Food designer Marije Vogelzang spoke on Eating in a phygital world, first covering the importance of imagination and how we give meaning to the world.  She added that as human beings we have the innate desire to belong, referencing the concept of conviviality – and noting that we eat three times a day, with each meal providing the opportunity to connect with one another. 

Vogelzang described many of her design projects, one of which addressed the topic of food waste.  She noted that while many of us were raised with instructions to finish everything on our plates, that notion is receding amid the developed world’s culture of abundance (a theme covered in last month’s post), and we are eating too much, too fast – leading to waste and obesity.  As a result, she designed a project in which she added objects to the middle of plates – with the result that individuals took the time to engage with the object and eat more slowly.  Thus, by allowing more time for their bodies to signal that they were full, diners consumed 20% less food.  

Joan Simo of Spanish food retailer Grup Ametller Origen detailed the company’s deep sustainability focus and its many efforts to address agrifood challenges of population growth, land requirements, climate change, biodiversity loss, and food access.  The company’s commitment to sustainability and its initiatives serve as excellent examples for other food retailers to adopt.

Carolyn Steel built upon her two TED talks regarding how food shapes our cities and her concept of Sitopia (food place).  Highly appropriate for the food designers at EFOOD24, she gave a history of humanity’s relationship with food and reminded us that everything in our lives is shaped by food – adding that somehow we are missing that fact today. 

She noted that as social beings we get the most pleasure out of sharing and eating food with others – and therefore questioned why we aren’t doing more of it versus consuming such a high percentage of our meals in cars.  

Importantly, Steel reminded us that there is no such thing as cheap food, arguing that we have created that concept by externalizing all of the costs of production, distribution, overconsumption, and waste – and we are now experiencing all of the consequences in the form of climate change, obesity, land degradation, and biodiversity loss.

She called on us to properly value food and repurpose the economy around food, noting that if we use a food lens we can achieve a much better food place (Sitopia).

These are all excellent themes for food designers to explore. 

Alice Rawsthorn discussed the theme of Design Emergency and Food, citing many current global challenges (migration, homelessness, the human toll of conflict, climate change, African drought and famine, hunger, obesity) and noting why we should care about solving them.  Significantly, she added that design can help in attacking these critical global problems, but it must be coupled with compassion.  I fully agree.

Pablo Britton, development chef at Bompas & Parr, spoke on How Food, Design, and Technology Shape Who We Are.  Britton noted that we are what we eat, and he reminded us that food plays an essential role in our behavior.  He added that eating together is one of our most important points of connection, which in my mind is a point that needs to be leveraged regarding the Zero-Hunger Goal.  

Breakout Hubs

Last, the conference included a number of breakout hubs in workshop fashion for rapid ideation on specific questions to aid in shaping the role of the food designer.  One such session built on education-related quotes from leaders such as Nelson Mandela and John Dewey, where team members filled in the blanks to come up with guiding statements such as “Food design education is a transdisciplinary collective agent which you can use to promote, improve, allow, create, and enable positive shifts in the food system” and “Food design education is not only for chefs, designers and cooks, food design education is designing stronger, more ethical resilience in food systems.”

The Need for Food Designers (Now)

In addition to all of the learnings from the segments noted above, perhaps the biggest takeaway was the inspiration gained from the engagement with all of the conference participants.  These mission-focused food designers are all focused on driving positive change in the food system in collaborative, innovative fashion.

In my mind, there’s an inevitability to the role of the food designer, because the need to shape and drive transformational food system change is so great.

But we need to speed up expansion and normalization of the role.

Persistent hunger, malnutrition, obesity, waste, water scarcity, emissions, land degradation, deforestation, biodiversity loss, plastic pollution – all of these massive, stubborn sustainability challenges require breakthroughs, and food designers are well-positioned to help.

As EFOOD24 showed, food designers get it.  They understand the centrality of food in our lives, the scope of the food system, the scale of its impact in the form of environmental and social externalities, and the urgent need for positive food system change.

These individuals bring a needed disruptive focus; they are capable of re-imagining solutions to these sustainability problems and working around existing barriers.

In her talk, Alice Rawsthorn noted that “design is an agent of change which can help us make sense of what is happening and turn it to our advantage.”

Separately, Pedro Alvarez noted that “the food industry is ill, and we need to send food designers to as many food companies as possible because they have a heart and a brain” to lead change.

Let’s recognize the positive disruptive power of food designers.

Let’s amplify that disruptive power with knowledge sharing and collaboration, grounded in compassion for people and planet.  

And let’s unleash them on the entrenched challenges of the food system.