Envisioning Sustainable Food Sourcing Solutions

Through the Sustainable Solutions Workshop, an ID student team conducted a sweeping project that considered the outdated aspects of industrial agriculture, the demand for low prices and large quantities, and the need to address equity, accessibility, quality, nutrition, animal welfare, and fair labor related to food. In short, the project sought to bring much-needed innovation to the food production and distribution infrastructure in the United States. The team recommended four macro-level paradigm shifts: away from standardization and mass production toward made-to-order, small-scale, batch-based offerings; away from a rigidly designed supply change toward transparent, agile forms of distributed production; away from subsidized single-source calorie-rich foods (such as dairy, refined grain, meat) toward crop diversity among nutrient-rich foods (such as vegetables, fruits, fish, and whole grains); and reframing the choice of healthy, nutritious food as central to ethical and culturally enriching eating practices. The project received recognition in 2021 from both Core77 and Fast Company. Student team: Harini Balu, Justin Bartkus, Todd Cooke, Jessica DeMeester, Audrey Gordon, Grace Hanford, Alvin Jin, Zhongyang Li, Shuyi Liu, Jason Romano, McKinley Sherrod, Brian Siegfried, J Smyk, Yutian Sun, Xiaoqiao Tang, Andreya Veintimilla, Justin Walker, Wanshan Wu, Shiya Xiao, Yueyue Yang. Faculty: Carlos Teixeira. Teaching assistant: Hendriana Werdhaningsih.