Speculative Design: Why organic food might soon be a thing of the past
Speculative design aims to address big societal problems that we are currently creating for ourselves by exploring a spectrum of possible futures.
Today I’d like to look into a possible future focused on microplastics. Why? Well, because of 4 current trends that I find unnerving:
- We are producing more and more plastic
- Nearly half of that plastic is used only once and then thrown away
- Plastic that has broken down into invisible microplastic is being found everywhere in nature transported there by rain & air.
- A 2021 study found 10 times more plastic in baby poop compared to adults. Shit is getting real (pun intended). So microplastics have already entered our bodies as well.
Let’s take a closer look
Plastic is super useful, don’t get me wrong. The problem is, that 40% of the plastic being produced is for one-time packaging. And less than 5% of plastic is recycled globally. Even Europe only manages to recycle 30%.
So a big chunk of plastic is used once and then thrown away to get burnt or slowly decompose into microplastics in a dumpster, somewhere in the landscape, sea or maybe an animals stomach.
In 2017 Researchers found that over 1,000 metric tons of microplastic fall on 11 protected areas in the US annually, equivalent to over 120 million plastic water bottles. “We’ve only recently recognized human exposure to microplastics through the air,”
said Wright, who wrote a detailed review article on human health and microplastics back in 2017. Read the full article here.
Let's speculate how that might change our lives in a possible not so distant future.
Peep, peep, peep…. “Good morning Donald, it’s Tuesday 16th of October 2029. The weather forecast is rainy. Particulate matter air levels are expected to be low. Face masks are not needed as long as it rains.
Top news this morning:
- Climate change world heat record broken for 9th consecutive time. Wildfires in the south and drought-related mass migrations to the northern countries are expected to continue next year.
- United Nations declares bees extinct in wild, due to starvation caused by microplastics sticking to their legs prohibiting them from collecting pollen. 1billion USD funding to go into robotic pollination research. Another 1mill work visas for immigrant manual pollinators to be given.
- New Information in the ongoing Weight Watchers las suit claims to prove that they purposely used microplastic-polluted food for their slime line products back in 2024 in order to... “
“Alexa: news off. Tell me my daily agenda” Donald’s sleepy voice commands.
“Your daily summary:
Morning: Your first meeting starts in 30mins: Daily Standup.
Afternoon: Pick up Eric after school. A weekly MBC (microplastic bowel cleansing) appointment is scheduled for both of you on the way home. Evening: Date with Angela. Location not specified. Readout entire schedule?”
“No.” Donald replies, and with that, he got up out of bed and walked into the kitchen to grab his morning coffee and make some breakfast. He was unsure which restaurant to book for his date tonight. “It can’t be one of those cheap organic food places, maybe a midclass hydroponic restaurant?” he thought. “Or should he try to get a table at a high-class sterile-food restaurant to impress her? “
“High class sterile. I want to impress her after all.” he thought. “Alexa, book a table for two at 19:00 tonight in a sterile-food restaurant.”
“I found a table for two in BurgerKing looking on to the Brandenburger Gate. at 19:30 tonight. Should I reserve?”
“Yes.” Donald said. That would be just perfect. BurgerKing had a very good reputation for only using 100% microplastic free food in their dishes. And they hadn’t been involved in that organic food scandal a couple of months back that had crippled a couple of other high-class restaurants. Sitting in the restaurant would be very uncomfortable after the microplastic bowel cleansing, he’d better pack in some pain killers….
This short scene tries to make a speculative future tangible how microplastics might impact our lives in future.
Speculative events leading to this scene:
- Food & water has become polluted with invisible microplastic particles that inhibit the human digestive system to take in nutrients ultimately leading to starvation, despite eating food.
- First microplastic starvation death.
- As microplastic starvation deaths increase, scientists race to develop a cure.
- Automated, highly sterile hydroponic farms start popping up to supply microplastic free food. Whoever can afford the microplastic free food, pays the premium.
- Scientists develop a method to clean the human bowel from microplastic. It gets fast-tracked medical approval. Unfortunately, it is painful, expensive and needs to be done at least on a monthly basis. United nations recommend it for all humans aged 5+ years. All children below the age of five are to eat hydroponically grown, hyper sterile food only.
- Bee’s go extinct, due to microplastic starvation. Microplastics clinging to their tiny hairs prevented them from collecting pollen. As a result, immigrant pollinators are hired to manually pollinate plants, but they cannot keep up with the work, that bees used to do, so fruits and vegetable growth falls behind demand and food prices rise drastically.
Key take away:
The point of speculative design is to bring about change today, in order to make a preferable future more probable.
Stop using one-time plastic today, to save your kids tomorrow. Be like Denmark, not America
Want to learn more about speculative design? I wrote a short introduction here.
