Broad structure of the video essay and voiceover text

What is the takeaway?

The future will bring many problems for food, and the solution presented by tech companies is not a real solution because it does not address the real problems

Focus on first defining the problems, rather than just coming up with solutions

What is the purpose of food? Why do we eat? What does it take to be full? What do you eat when you’re at work? How often do you eat just for pleasure? Do you eat out of necessity?

   • Start with climate change – abundance all around us, we take it for granted, it could end, build up the list of problems we could be facing (what qualifies as a problem? Where do we look for solutions? What food problems can be identified today and speculate for the future?)
   • Techno-solutionism – a default way to deal with problems, starting from silicon valley, propagated around the world
   • meal replacements – a manifestation of techno-solutionism in food. what are they, what principles are associated with them, what problems do they claim to solve (cooking, time management, uncertainty, waste, access, sustainability)
   • deconstructing meal replacements – while addressing the issues identified at the beginning
   • what other alternatives do we have for the way we live today?
   • End with my own experience

INTRO

I live in the NL, in an apartment which sits 3m below sea level. I love to eat, and I’m lucky that my local supermarkets are filled to the brim with foods from all over the world. I never have to think about not being able to find the food I want, at any time of the year. Will this convenience, abundance, and the joy of year-round seasons ever end?

CLIMATE CHANGE

It might, and quite soon. By now, we should all be aware of the catastrophic effects of climate change on our planet. Food is a fragile resource. Earth overshoot day, the day of the year when we’ve used more from nature than it can replenish, moves up every year. Rising and increasingly extreme temperatures will affect not only agriculture, but also imports and exports. If food stopped coming into cities every day, those of us stuck in there would not last long. The future is grim in most aspects, but especially when it comes to food. It’s not a coincidence that most dystopian views of the future imagine a very bleak diet for most of the world’s population. (soylent green, snowpiercer)

And I am genuinely worried. I love food, and I am probably not willing to give up the convenience of constant access to delicious food. But I’m open to suggestions.

PROBLEMS

So what can we do? What are the ways in which we deal, at least in the western world, with problems? Who is in charge of defining what the problems are, and who do we turn to for solutions? For better or for worse, ideas come from many places, you just have to be open to receive them, and critical to implement them.

In the past few decades, we’ve learned to rely on technology to improve the problems we face in our daily life. And for good reason. From this came the belief that technology can make anything better. And nowhere else is this belief more prominent than in Silicon Valley, the source of most mainstream contemporary technologies we use today.

And yes, they also have food on their mind, with both problems and solution. One of the most controversial proposals to deal with these problems, and a couple other problems which I’ll get to in a while, comes from Silicon Valley. Their take on it? Give up on food. In this video, I want to take a closer look at this range of products, from the problems they are meant to solve, to the culture from which they developed.

For some people, eating is something they do because they have to. It doesn’t have to taste good, it just has to keep them going. Luckily for them, lots of people in Silicon Valley feel the same, and have figured out a way to make money out of it. Lots of money. Take Rob Reinhart, the founder of Soylent. (him speaking) While it is easy to mock him for his food choices, his way of dealing with what he saw as a problem is very common in Silicon Valley. It’s something called techno-solutionism, the belief that anything can be solved through technology. Why is that so bad? (Evgeni talking about it) His definition addresses the fact that techno-solutionists focus more on finding solutions, than addressing the actual problems. It’s a constant chase for solutions.

The range of problems SV is interested in fixing is a bit more focused on a specific demographic, with a specific lifestyle.