A NEW EPOCH
The Holocene is giving way to the Anthropocene, the epoch of humans. What this means is that humankind is now the geological force with the most impact on the planet. It will be official once geologists agree a start date and markers. 1950 is a favoured candidate for the start date while candidates for markers include:
•radioactive fallout from atomic weapons testing
•plastics + plastiglomerate, a new rock
•nitrogen and phosphorus
•chicken bones.
FOOD AND THE ANTHROPOCENE All but one of the markers is a direct result of the way we do food on this planet. Often talk about the future is full of doom and gloom. The Future Food Salon is detailed to lay the foundation for collaborating, identifying, disseminating and celebrating exciting options for feeding future generations. In this series, we focus on nature’s primo waste managers (just one of this kingdom’s expertises) to learn how to better manage the planet and her resources. We will explore the worlds of fermentation, fungi, moulds, and yeasts. Supporting ingredients are algae and insects.
WHY FUNGI? We are featuring fungi for many reasons: ease of cultivation, ease of distribution, shelf life when dried, versatility, fermentations, range of flavours and textures, nutrition. We are also impressed with their suitability for interplanetary travel and colonization, their abilities to grow on and consume waste, and their plasticity as a construction material, whether textiles or bricks. Fungi have many delightful features. Did you know the planet’s largest living organism is a fungi?
FUTURE FOOD Here at Alimentary, we think about the future of food constantly and have been devising wild and wonderful experiments building on the tremendous work of geniuses in the field like Paul Stamets and Peter McCoy. Artists and scientists join together in the Future Food Salon 3: Voyage to Anthropocene to bring prototypes and experiments that will bowl you over.
WHEN? The Voyage to Anthropocene will take off in 2020. Sign up to our newsletter to keep posted on exact launch times. Newsletter Sign-up Form
Photo credit: Jean Beaufort.
