BioSystemic In(k). ~ Food-Systems Challenge
“And then ask yourself, how would nature do it?” ~ Jeanine Benyus the Founder of Biomimicry
Do you remember the first food you ever had? I don’t mean the kind when you were attached to your mother’s hip––I mean the first meal where you sat down at a table and ate with another human being?
For the last five years I’ve been following a new kind of scientific art called Biomimicry– “the design and production of materials, structures, and systems, that are modeled on biological entities and processes.” Founded by Jeanine Benyus, the Biomimicry movement asks us to use nature’s ways as the footprint for our designs. That’s a natural fit for food system design, because every single thing we eat comes from nature, beginning as something growing on the land or at sea.
This year, I was enlisted as a judge for the Global Biomimicry Food-Systems Design Challenge, sponsored by the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. In 1973, Ray C. Anderson founded Interface, Inc., producing the first free-lay carpet floor tiles for American homes and offices. Today, Interface is the world’s leading producer of modular commercial floor coverings. With manufacturing locations on four continents, their products sell in 110 countries. Mr. Anderson fell in love with Biomimicry and sustainable business practices, and made radical changes to his company––which have spread throughout the industry. In 2011, however, Ray died of cancer. The following year, his family created the Ray C. Anderson Foundation to promote and develop sustainable and biologically-inspired economic systems for the future well-being of our planet. It is from the Foundation’s support that a Biomimicry Accelerator was created, culminating in the $100,000 Ray C. Anderson Foundation Ray of Hope Prize for the Food-Systems Challenge.
One of my earliest childhood memories is of a food system challenge that our neighbor created. It was a Fourth of July weekend when Juanita, our Cuban neighbor asked to cook for us. I was maybe five years old and usually played all Summer with her sons and daughters and grandchildren around our country home. At most homes in our neighborhood, the Fourth usually saw all the men poking burgers on the BBQ, but ours was a different kind of holiday. At our house, the women cooked, while the men hunted and foraged on the land and sea. The kids ran around throwing water-balloons at each other and jumpingthrough the lawn sprinklers. It was what I call a ‘Bio-Systemic’ kind of event. You see, BioSystemics isthe study of the relationships between organisms in respect to their evolutionary frameworks.
We lived across the street from Juanita, in our own Bio-Systemic Oasis. Our vegetable gardens were bursting with rows of corn, squash, green beans, and tomatoes, and fruit trees were scattered about. Grapes climbed on my jungle-gym, and wild native berries and honey-suckle trailed along every trellis and fence. And then there was the boat.
My father had recently gotten the bright idea to buy a few lobster traps, and he set them three days before. We pulled them up to find fresh Atlantic lobster and crab, and on the way home we drifted through Shinnecock Inlet to catch wild Striped-Bass with live bait caught from another fish trap. We raked clams from the Bay, and pulled mussels from the oyster beds with our bare hands. All of this came together, with environmental and social benefits––a feast of abundance and togetherness.
This horn of plenty, built on healthy eco-systems of the East End of Long Island, was a model of resilience. When the men were done hunting, and the kids were done picking, and the women were done chopping, we loaded an enormous paella pan, which took three grown men to carry. They brought it down to Juanita’s traditional brick fireplace, which her son had built for the feast. I remember the contentment and harmony rising from those picnic tables that day, as we ate around a fire as our ancient ancestors must have done––only now the music was Cuban and we were all dancing. This feast was a team creation––the result of community and a Biologically-Systemic collaboration.
I bolded select words in this piece, because they are some of the parameters that we used to judge the student team entries for the Global Food-System Challenge. The students took their cues from naturally-built solutions, re-imagining them as our own, entering them into the Food-System Challenge with the hope of creating Bio-Inspired change for a better future on our planet.
Entrants to the Biomimicry Food Systems Challenge were asked to:
• Identify and solve a specific problem within the food system.
• Intentionally emulate one or more mechanisms, processes, patterns, or systems found in nature.
• Enhance the sustainability of the food system, whether from an environmental, social, or economic perspective—or ideally all three—one with potential for impact and at a scope and scale that is feasible for the team.
Their entries were judged under these categories:
The three winning teams in the student category will receive cash prizes, while the seven winning teams in the open category will each receive $2,000 and an invitation to enter the 2016-17 Biomimicry Accelerator, which awards the $100,000 Ray C. Anderson Foundation Ray of Hope Prize.
Winners, Student Category
First place: Stillæ – Glenforest Secondary School, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
A team of six high school girls from Ontario, Canada developed Stillæ, a device designed to capture water in the air before it fully evaporates and then use that water to irrigate crops in both developed and developing countries.
Inspiration: The team looked to organisms that can survive in water-scarce regions for inspiration for their design, including the Socotra desert rose, lichen, and the fogstand beetle. Stillæ is covered in hexagonal-shaped solar panels, inspired by the honeycombs of bees.
Second place: Home Food Garbage Decomposer – Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan
The Home Food Garbage Decomposer is a device that aims to address the pollution and food safety issues associated with the way food waste is currently treated.
Inspiration: The team looked to cockroaches’ respiratory system, termites’ nest air circulation systems, and the structure of cocoons and honeycombs in order to create a highly efficient, aerobic decomposer for home use.
Third place: The EcoFruitainer – Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico
The EcoFruitainer is a bio-inspired, transportable container that not only keeps food fresh in sustainable ways, but enhances food access in rural or hard-to-reach areas.
Inspiration: The team looked to the cooling and storage functions of organisms such as the Nephila clavipes spider, prairie dog, tree bark, and the reflective properties of the green birdwing butterfly.
Participating in the challenge and getting the chance to see so many exciting groups of students––including kids, young adults, scientists, designers, and artists––and continue to learn the Biomimic Process was both a privilege and an honor. The contest applies Biomimicry––the lessons from natural ecosystems––to improve our organizational structures. Through it, I believe we can facilitate the next generation of thought and change leaders.
I have grown up working in food systems my entire life. Even when it was not in one of my father’s restaurants it was in our garden, or fishing, or in the woods foraging berries and mushrooms. Then it carried through my culinary career to world-class kitchens, foodservice production and even slaughterhouses. Now I am digesting food production and produce management with a multi-generational Southern California company called Moceri Produce, and our farm Connelly Gardens.
Near the end of his career, Ray C. Anderson went on the speech circuit. He often began his presentations by asking the audience to close their eyes and imagine they were in the most beautiful and tranquil place they could think of. Then he’d ask for a show of hands––who’s imagination took them to a place outdoors in a natural setting? When Ray asked the audience to reopen their eyes, nearly everyone in every room had their hands up. It is in nature where Biomimicry begins, and it is through Biomimicry that I can write with a digital pen called BioSystemic In(k).
No comments:
Post a Comment