In Future Lab, a course aimed at developing thematic future scenarios and probes linked to existing companies, we were tasked with setting up our own world building and matching probes based on our given theme: biodiversity and consumption of meat. We linked this social theme to the existing company Unilever, so that we could experience their vision on our theme and thus provide a solid future scenario and probe for them to use in the future.
Project
Future Lab/Unilever
Roles
Researcher
Storyteller
Concept developer
Visual designer
Prototyper
Contribution
We worked in a team of two in which we each had a different aspect of our given theme so that we could connect and complement our world building and physical probes.
FUTURE SCENARIO: Meat in abundance
What if biodiversity declines, leading to a drastic reduction in healthy agricultural land and a constant growth in the demand for meat for consumption?
Synopsis
It's the year 2050. The habitat for humans and animals has deteriorated dramatically due to steadily declining biodiversity. Forty percent of the Amazon rainforest has been cleared, creating a global shortage of medicines. Deforestation has caused erosion, washing away fertile soil and rendering agricultural land unusable. In the Netherlands, monoculture has rendered much of the agricultural land unusable. The small percentage that remains fertile is used to grow animal feed to meet the growing consumer demand for meat. This growing demand is due to a slow behavioral shift and the overly entrenched nature of meat in Dutch food culture. Furthermore, many people still believe that meat is healthy for both people and the environment.
Rianne is a single mother of two, and their entire family eats meat. Products like fruit, vegetables, potatoes, and pasta are privileged. The rest is all meat, the only thing available in abundance. Like most people in the Netherlands, Rianne is on the verge of being overweight. Because there are hardly any medications available, severe obesity has become fatal. This frightens Rianne, but she doesn't know how or what she can change when she's been eating this way her whole life, there's no government help, and the food supply consists of 90% meat.
Animal rights activists and organizations have been calling for a ban on meat consumption for years, replacing it with other products that could be produced if all remaining agricultural land were used for consumer food. But the Dutch have been clear: they want meat.
Scenario
To keep pace with the growing meat supply, the government legalized livestock cloning by 2030. Previously, cloning animals and humans was illegal in Europe, but importing was permitted. Initially, there was a stir because cloning naturally raised ethical and health concerns, but after a while, when it became clear that there were no health risks involved, the outcry diminished to a low-key murmur from a very small minority that was easy to ignore. Initially, there were some difficulties, such as a high mortality rate among cloned calves, which turned out to be due to genetics. Pigs and sheep are also easier to clone than cattle. Rianne is a single mother of two children; their entire family eats meat. Products like fruit, vegetables, potatoes, and pasta are privileges that can be eaten occasionally. The rest is just meat, the only thing offered in abundance. Rianne, like most people in the Netherlands, is on the verge of being overweight because of this. Because there are hardly any medications available, severe obesity has become fatal. This frightens Rianne, but she doesn't know how or what she can change when she's been eating this way her whole life, there's no government help, and the food supply consists of 90% meat.
Rianne doesn't mind that cattle are cloned to provide sufficient food; she's just happy that sufficient supplies can be supplied to consumers. What she does realize is that this extremely high demand for meat has made it difficult, if not impossible, for her as a consumer to obtain other, healthier products. She has acquaintances who are trying to grow fresh produce in a vegetable garden, but this requires government permission. Because the government is trying to boost biodiversity in the Netherlands, they want to keep a watchful eye on all agricultural activities in the country, no matter how small-scale. Biodiversity is crucial in a vegetable garden; without it, the chance of crops growing without resources is very small. The government also fears that monoculture will be used if many vegetable gardens become established, making the soil and crops vulnerable to pests, plant diseases, and natural disasters. As a result, most people don't get permits and operate behind the government's back. This could land you a hefty fine and/or jail time. Rianne knows her acquaintances don't have permits, so she never accepts their offers; if you accept illegally grown produce, you're just as liable to prosecution as the person who grew it. And who's going to take care of her children if she's in jail?! No, that's too risky.
Rianne eventually reached obesity, something she knew was coming. Due to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, many medicines can no longer be produced, including those Rianne needs. As a result, everyday life continues as usual, until Rianne hears a friend mention cultured meat. Intrigued, she jumps in: cultured meat? Meat made from cells without the need for animal feed or slaughter? Surely that would have failed 30 years ago?
Her friend begins to explain that she's heard from several people that they've restarted their research because the government has decided that improving biodiversity isn't working with the measures they've implemented. They're seeing rising obesity rates and are now focusing on the population instead of improving biodiversity. This news fills Rianne with hope, even though her friend warns her to keep it to herself. It might be too late for her, but maybe her children still have a chance.
Scene
Rianne quickly grabs a basket as she enters her local supermarket. She hates going to the store for food. Her weight prevents her from walking normally, and every step hurts. She's also depressed by the prices of everything except meat. Vegetables, fruit, bread—everything is six or seven times more expensive than the meat that fills half the store. Reluctantly, she slowly walks to the side filled with chicken. Chicken is Jeffrey's favorite meat. Susan prefers pork. Rianne grabs a kilo package of chicken and quickly puts it in her basket. She doesn't even need to check the price; meat always falls under her weekly food budget. Fruit and vegetables, on the other hand… With a knot in her stomach, she walks to the back of the store. Almost hidden in a corner are all the fruits and vegetables. She grabs a bag of apples and checks the price: three times her weekly budget. She sighs. Why did she expect anything different? That's how it always goes, every now and then she manages to find a deal but usually it ends like this: Rianne goes home with a bag full of meat.
Storyboard
Visual board
FUTURE PROBE: THE MODERN FARMER AND HIS NUTRITIOUS BARS
Worldbuilding
It's the year 2050. The population has grown steadily, and the demand for food is only increasing as a result. This has caused a dramatic decline in biodiversity, forcing the government to intervene drastically. Plants have become the priority; how can we save them? The government has deployed every expert, scientist, and other resources to research and experiment with plants, hoping to save biodiversity. These people live in communities that are healthier than the surrounding environment. They are fed a powder containing all the proteins, vitamins, and fats an average adult needs. This powder had been developed previously, but because it's vegan, it never attracted much interest. Consequently, very little was produced, and the government has stored what was left to distribute to the communities.
The rest of the population lives outside the communities, and the government doesn't pay much attention to them. To support and feed these people, bars have been developed and distributed by the government. Supermarkets will therefore be redundant in the future. The population knows what the bars are made of: human flesh. People who cannot contribute to the restoration of biodiversity, plants, or normal life (for example, the homeless, the unemployed, and the overly ill) are used as food. Normally, human flesh is poisonous to others, but when the bar was released, the government claims that care was taken to ensure it wouldn't be fatal. The reality is somewhat more grim; nothing was added to the bars to prevent the poisoning. The percentage of the population that dies from the bars, in turn, reduces the overpopulation and can be used to make new bars.
Visual board
Probe - Nutritious bars?
This probe shows how the bars are made that the rest of the population, who don't live in the communities, eat. At first glance, it looks like a normal conveyor belt; two freshly processed bars slide through a screen onto a conveyor belt, ready to be consumed. But if you look at the back of the conveyor belt, you can see what's being processed into the bars. Behind the screen, deceased people hang from a cable, which are released into a machine and pulverized to form the bars.
