BCFN Young Earth Solutions YES!
Totally Not Neutral Abstract: "Totally Not Neutral" shows the consumption hidden behind what we eat, in a paticipating way and underlines the fact that eating is not neutral. The project consists of two parts. The first is dedicated to involvement and discover, a food event, where the communication occur through the food on which are printed, with edible colours, the water consumption and the emission of Co2 of each dish. The second part is dedicated to the further investigation of the matter, a booklet is given to the participants, where they can find the food offered at the event with the relative consumption, information about the food and agricolture field, infographics and short texts. The data of Co2 and water are expressed in a more tangible and immediate way through the use of equivalences, car km, lakes and areoplanes trip become the new measurements. The project adresses young people, because they will pay the consequences of the wrong eating habits of their parents, but they are on time to change their way of eating and the one of the future generation, reconsidering the food, not just because of the final product, but as part of a process that has consequences.
Author
Teresa Palmieri
Totally Not Neutral Totally Not Neutral is a project developt in the field of communication and interaction design. Totally Not Neutral examinate the consumption of natural resources that is hidden behind the production and consumtion of food and the consequences of our food habits. The project is based on a careful research of the implications that our decisions in the field of food involve and took in examination the relationship that exists between sustainability and diet, the consumption of natural resources (ground, water, petrol), the transportation of food, the waste of food and the its connected disposal. The collection of data and information has allowed the development of a project with the aim of communicate the environmental impact of our food choices , in particular the one of the italian peoples. The chemical and intensive agricolture, the food production and the industrial livestock holdings have so much damaged our planet and exploited the natural resources that the food security is not anymore so sure for the future, and so the food production has become one of the greatest contemporary and future challenges. For this reasons it is needed an intervantion to communicate to people how eating is not a neutral action, but is the action that probably more than anyother modifies us and the environment. Totally Not Neutral tries to coomicate this macro theme in an involving and participatory way, avoiding a moralist and punishing communication. The project is made of two parts. The first is dedicated to involvement and discover, a food event where the communication occurs through the food offered on at the event. On the food pieces are printed, trough the use of staps and edible colours, the consuption of water and the production of Co2 that each food has involved while production and preparation. The second part is dedicated to go deeper in the theme and to the memory. The guests receive a booklet on which they can find the food that they have eaten at the event with the data of the consumtion of natural resources, informations about the food and agricolture sector, infographics and short textes. To let the data be more understandable, the co2 and the water some equivalences are used. Car kilometers, lakes and airplane trips become the new mesurments through which translating the grate exploitation of natural resources of the production and consumption of food. Totally Not Neutral: Food Event The form of a food event to talk about food and sustainability allows to communicate this argument in a more active and involving way, using as medium the food. The data of water and Co2 on the food refer to a single portion, and they allows to make evident an action that many people do without be concious, when I eat some food I “consume� also the natural resources and the processes that have been necessary to produce that piece of food. The event would like to surprise and entertain, so that this important argument would not be forgotten, but would be researched deeper singularly.
Totally Not Neutral: Booklet The booklet of Totally Not Neutral is made of four parts: the picture of the food offered during the event with the realtive consumprion of natural resources, five short textes puted side by side with some photographic infographics and some slogans. The five chapter of the book report: a short introduction about the environmental impact of eating, a resume of the pollution connected with the production of animal products, a brief explanation of the problems connected with the production of vegetables, in which is took in exam also the theme of import of food, a chapter dedicated in particular to italian food, and finally a chapter about food waste. Each chapter has an infographic about the theme in the chapter. The first chapter has an infographic representing the Co2 emissions of the different type of diet: omnivorous, vegetarian and vegan. The data are translated in car kilometers, so that they can be easy to understand. The second infographic is about the consumption of petrol of the production of meat, eggs and cheese. On the pictures of food are writen how many calories of fossil fuel are necessar to produce on calorie of food. The third infographic are represented some sorts of vegetables and fruits, and the place of production, the kilometers and consumtion of co2 that they have caused to be imported in Italy. The fourth infographic is made of a picture of a pizza. On the pizza are written the use of water used to made the different ingredients of it. The last infographics is about the waste of food of italian families and it represents the quantity of animal and vegetal products in percentage that are thrown in the garbage each year. Each infographic has a titel that resume in a interesting way the content of it.The last part of the booklet cntains some slogans on which people can read some of the most interesting datas about the consumption of natural resources caused by food production and consumtion. When it is necessary are used some equivalences to translate the liter of water or the Co2, to make them easier to conceptual visualization. When the liters of water are too much to be visualized the liters are translated into lakes, swimming-pools or showers. In the same way the consumption of Co2 are translated into car kilomters.
Totally Not Neutral is a format suitable for festival or lectures about food and sustainability, but also to be used as medium to communicate this problem in the schools.