Self sufficiency

These days people are able to live and survive in a diversity of environments spread out from a deserted area somewhere in the mountains to densely populated cities in Asia. Obviously it is easier to get your daily nutrients in the big cities and much more difficult to find it in the rural areas. But is this as true as it sounds?

When living in a city you sometimes wonder where people living in rural areas get their food from. In cities one can find a supermarket around every corner of the street while in small (rural) villages there might not be one at all. Thereby distances to more inhabited areas might be long. Especially in harsh winter circumstances it seems impossible for them to and get any food at all.

It seems much easier for city dwellers to shop for their daily nutrients. After work they will definitely pass by a supermarket which has a wide but steady assortment of products on sale. It only takes some money and a little bit of time to get a basket full of food into your kitchen.

But facts might be different. Since cities grow bigger distances between supermarkets and farm land grow too. In some countries this has led to so called food deserts; areas in which there is no availability of fresh and affordable food.

The advantage of living in a rural area is space. Usually there is a lot of it, although it might not always been useful to grow food or keep animals. The available space gives people in rural areas the possibility to survive. In summer they grow lots of food which they eat immediately or conserve for scarce winter periods. Ok, it takes some effort, a freezer and a storage room, but at least they can enjoy their own grown food whenever they like.

Urban dwellers soon also have to find a way to fulfill in their own food needs. The increasing distance food has to be transported also has consequences for quality and prices consumers pay in supermarkets. Soon they will have to coop with similar problems as countrymen. What now mainly is done for the fun or out of an ideology might soon become a necessity. Balconies, rooftops, window sills and leftover spaces will all be used to grow one’s own food. Urban dwellers become urban farmers which are able to handle techniques and care for the plants. It might take some time until one gets’ the hang of it but in the end it will be satisfying.

The advantage of growing your own food is enormous. First of all will it make the city a bit greener and more comfortable to live in. The food you will grow and later eat is fresh and cheap and you as a person will receive great health benefits while being in the outside air, getting your hands dirty and your mind empty which in the ends will definitely give you a full stomach!

When are people self sufficient? Is this trend really helping to make a world greener and cleaner? Follow this discussion.

Food market(ing) - An essay IV

The book Eat this has ten suggestions for food hotspots which offer a good opportunity to create public domain. Most of them still give the user a passive role regarding to food (only buying and eating). There is one exception which also is the the most interesting to me.

The density of markets in the Netherlands is low compared to that in other countries. In the big four cities (Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht) one can probably find one or more markets each day. However people in smaller cities – which we have a lot in the Netherlands – should be lucky to find a market even more than ones a week. This in contrast to cities in southern European countries like Italy and Spain where each little villages at least has a market ones a week and bigger cities have them each day.

For people who have a job from nine to five opening hours of the Dutch markets are very inconvenient. Therefore they might prefer the all day opening hours of a supermarket - with a small but steady assortment - over the cheap products of a market.

This is a missed opportunity since the market not only offers cheap products but also has a broader range to choose from. Prices are mostly low since merchants sell products from the season and usually their rents of space and transports costs are lower than the supermarket (check also an earlier post on markets).

Besides offering cheap products the market could bring the consumer directly in contact with the producer explaining about his products, where they come from and how they are best kept and prepared.

To make people stay longer at the market one could also decide to offer other services related to food. As many merchants already do, they not only sell fresh products. Some of them also prepare food like fried fish, grilled chicken, etc. But this still leaves the client in a very passive role.

Fast shoppers should be seduced to stay longer. Products sold on markets could also be prepared by a cook or even by the client himself. The cook explains what he did, bringing his enthusiasm for food and cooking to the consumers thereby stimulating them to enjoy the whole process of buying, preparing and eating healthy food. Different consumers come together to enjoy and discuss the meal they just ate.

To give an impulse to the markets in de Netherlands it is necessary to create markets which are organized on a more regular basis with longer opening hours. Climate wise the Dutch also have to consider protecting their clients against rain, wind or cold winter days. Rotterdam and The Hague are already discussing these possibilities.

A market might have all the ingredients to create public domain. I guess in general it is important to find a way in which people who usually not choose for healthy food are tempted to change their behavior in the nearby future. They have to ignore the unhealthy snack they usually buy on the way home or in the supermarket. We need to offer them a place – preferably on an easy accessible location which they would pass daily – where they can buy, prepare and enjoy the food they just bought. Public domain may be created when people from different cultures, countries, with a different income and education level, all come there. We need to consider to create a public domain where not only stomach but also brains are filled up with new energy!

Fun

The model as a result of the essay (roof is kept open to be able to look into the interior)

I just realized it is such fun to write this blog that I decided to quickly share this (short) story with you.

While summarizing and translating the last part of the essay Food as energizer for the public domain I realized I have learned a lot in the past few years. I wrote the essay when I was studying architecture. I just started my two year Master and decided I wanted to design a new building on a plot on the current Food Center in Amsterdam. The area used to be the location where products of farmers working and living close to Amsterdam were collected and distributed from.

Nowadays the area still functions as a Food Center but sales are only done by wholesalers to people owning a restaurant, a hotel or a (small) supermarket. It is a huge area in the middle of the historic centre of the city and a residential area closed off to the public. The Amsterdam municipality is discussing to develop the area in the nearby future.

The residential area used to be inhabited by immigrants, people with lower education levels and people having a low income. Research showed me that exactly those people have the risk to choose for cheap and unhealthy food and become overweight. The combination of these facts and the location convinced me to make a building in which food has an important role. The model of my design shows a market hall in which there is room for educational spaces as well. To me this could be an example in which food has a major role in creating public domain.

While working again on this essay after three years I realized I have learned a lot about food in the widest sense of its definition. I now doubt some assumptions I have made while writing the essay. I learned the assortment of supermarkets nowadays only seems to be very broad. In fact the consumer might have a smaller range to choose from than our ancestors had a hundred years ago. I now know some suppositions I have done in 2008 are not as easy as they then seemed to be. It seems easy to just change the products on sale on certain spots from unhealthy to healthy snacks. But entrepreneurs as well as clients cannot change overnight. It takes time and time only begin when someone starts to set in changes.

The research I have done to write this essay was the moment I started to realize something needed to change. I got completely enthusiastic about food, its relation to people and to cities and the rural. Slowly my bookcase started to need space for books on the subject. Books going from from Carolyn Steels ‘ Hungry City (which is very close related to my education) going to The truth abouth food by Jill Fullerton-Smith(which is a more technical approach to food)and everything in between and behind these two.

After some years I learned a lot but still need to learn a lot more. A lot of books needs to be read, films and documentaries need to be seen and people need to be discussed with. This blog enables me to share the inspiration I find in this subject again and again. I hope you are open to receive it and also realize we need to find a new role for food in our daily life. If you do get active and start today to enjoy and value the real food!

See you this Sunday for the last part called Food market(ing).

Fast food meets slow eaters - An essay III

Enjoying (unhealthy) food at a rock festival while getting in contact with others

In cities food can be obtained at wide range of locations going from kiosks along the street or at important traffic hubs to very intimate and expensive restaurants only accessible to the happy few who can afford them. Not surprisingly do the places offering cheap (and thus unhealthy) food attract the most wide range of people - young and old, poor and rich - come to have a quick snack. This week I will discuss the opportunities ad constraints of the different locations.

Since eating out became more popular in the 20th century the number of places where to get food grew more diverse. After the hot dog and ice cream seller kiosks at train stations popped up. Also snack bars with typical Dutch snacks started to be established in cities and rural villages. Although they attract a wide range of people, the atmosphere of the interior does not invite the client to stay longer than necessary. It’s mostly youngsters which meet here. Others just order and pay and leave as soon as their order is ready. Food will be eaten on the way or at home.

Big offices, hospitals and schools often also have their own restaurant or canteen. Mostly a caterer is responsible for this. Since contracts are usually for longer periods* it is not easy to change their behavior or have any influence on the products on offer. These restaurants usually only process the food to make it ready to eat; baking the prepared bread, fry or cook eggs and heat the soup. The opportunity here is that all the users of a building come here to have a snack, lunch or dinner, from cleaning lady to office manager.

A restaurant traditionally is the most luxurious place to go out for dinner (maybe except from having your own cook at home..…). Guests are served by a waiter and a lot attention is paid to the atmosphere replacing one’s own dining room. People really come here to talk to their partners, friends or family and enjoy the food and drinks they have ordered. By paying the bill you pay for quality time with the ones on your table. Compared to the above discussed locations the guest spent quiet some time them which makes a restaurant a good place to get in contact with others. In fact people will mainly talk to the people they join a table with.

One can see that each location (kiosk, canteen or restaurant) has its own opportunities and constraints to create public domain. When buying food in a kiosk one usually is in a hurry and combines eating with another activity like travelling. Most people buying here are individuals not open to get in contact with other people. Canteens and restaurants offer better opportunities for people to get in contact with each other since guests spent more time in here. Especially canteens attract a diversity of people from different backgrounds, with different interests, ideals, etc. Unfortunately this possibility is not exploited a lot.

To make food a guiding principle of the public domain (food causes the realization of a public domain) it needs to get a more active role on a specific location. There needs to be an activity which attracts people and which could also hold them for a longer period we are now used to. Food should be used as a mean to bind people from different groups and thus get them in contact with each other.

Joan Almekinders and Maurice Nio offer ten suggestions ‘to create central food spots which attract an interesting melting pot of city life’ in their book Eat this**. All places should be accessible to everyone; the rich and the poor, Dutch or immigrant from far away or close by. I will discuss the most interesting of these food spots next week in the final part of the essay ‘Food as energizer for the public domain’.

Click here to part IV - Food market(ing)

*European governments which launch a commission have to make a call for tenders if a certain amount of money is concerned with this commission

** Almekinders, J., Nio, M., Eat this, p.61, Duizend en Een publishers Amsterdam, 2006

Too much is still not good - An essay II

This is the second part of the essay ‘Food as energizer for the public domain’. Last week I dealt with the changes we’ve gone through during the 20th century. This week more about the effects these changes have caused.

Food now seems to be available everywhere. Each place where people have to wait or spent some time has a shop where food is sold: train stations, fuel stations, canteens, etc. People can eat whenever and whatever they want which has positive as well as negatives effects.

The shortage of food developed countries suffer from a hundred years ago has now changed into an excess of it which has caused many negative side effects: In 1996 we were first confronted with Kreutzfeldt-Jakob, the 21st century started with a growing number of (young) obesity patients and in 2007 there were many negative discussions about the weight and looks of catwalk models. Luckily there is also some good news to tell.

There are groups in society which have the possibility to have more attention for the quality instead of the quantity of their meals and the products available seem to be more diverse*

Food related problems are still mostly for the less wealthy people in our society. This is something which has not changed during the last century. Just the kind of problems is different now. These are not related to the quantity of the food those people receive, but the quality it has. In many cases the unhealthy option is cheaper than the healthy one. Education levels, income and (social) environment also influence the chance to become overweighed.

To decrease the number of obese one has to make people from more vulnerable groups aware of the influence of their situation on the way they eat. They should be convinced to eat healthier by making them aware of their habits. It should be made easier for everyone to resist the temptation of buying and eating unhealthy food. In public places more healthy food should be offered and maybe prices should become more favorable for these products.

The growing number of obese people has not been caused by the amount of food one has but also by the type of food offered. One does not only eat three meals a day but also has many opportunities to buy a snack between these meals. Usually these snacks contain a lot of calories which a normal person working in an office doesn’t need at all. Next week I’ll discuss some possible solutions which can be used in shaping public places.

Click here to part III - Fast food meets slow eaters

(*foodinthestreets: While translating this text I realize this is something which could be discussed: There might seem to be a bigger diversity of products because trade has expanded. At the same time the bio-diversity has decreased.)