Embassy of Food

The Embassy of Food believes in the power of food and design to create change. Globally, our food production accounts for about 30 percent of total CO₂ emissions. Moreover, the current food production and consumption method causes deforestation, water pollution, land degradation, loss of biodiversity and unequal access to healthy food. But food also has the potential to bring about change. If we start eating, producing and transporting differently, we can greatly improve this unsustainable system. How can we use the power of design to transform the current food system into a sustainable, healthy and fair system?

With the Embassy of Food, we contribute to this by shaping the future of this system differently with collective knowledge and imagination. In the coming years, we will develop a program in which we let designers look at concrete, contemporary issues. We accept the major challenge of redesigning the food system in various ways. For instance, we dare to look beyond what can happen and explore with our partners where things get stuck. And where there is a need for a different perspective and roadmap. After all, what does a food system look like in which the various cycles are closed, and we make optimum use of all raw materials? And how do we use spatial design to shape the change in our landscape that goes hand in hand with those transitions? What does this mean for the country, farmer and the chain? Can we accelerate the transition by offering new perspectives and moving from design to opportunity?  For a sustainable food system that benefits everyone?

In the coming years, we will build a network of designers, farmers, policymakers, companies, nature experts and producers to look for new perspectives on these questions. We are exploring opportunities to address these questions on different scales. The Embassy challenges the network to reflect on its current way of looking at things. Towards the system and to the existing chain. To provide insight into what it might mean and change the status quo.

These sessions not only lead to great examples and visions of how things can be done differently, but also ensure that we connect designers to current issues to translate these visions into reality. The Embassy serves as a physical place where these people can come together to develop different scenarios and examples of how food can serve as change, not only for our global food system and how we eat but also as a restorer of biodiversity and enrichment of nature and ensure fair food distribution. There is no right or wrong answer, but we do consider the implications for our future if we make certain choices.

Barbara Vos is a programme maker, researcher and creative strategist. Her expertise lies in the major sustainability issues and making them widely socially relevant and accessible.

Over the past ten years, she has immersed herself in the invisible world behind our food system and tried to make it more visible. For instance, she has collaborated with Tegenlicht, What Design Can Do, Next Nature and BlueCity.

Programme

Op dit moment is er geen programma voor deze Embassy. Schrijf je in voor de nieuwsbrief om op de hoogte te blijven of lees hier wat we voorgaande jaren hebben gedaan.

Retrospective 2022
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Retrospective 2021
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Retrospective 2020
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Retrospective 2018
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Retrospective 2017
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Past events

Updates

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News

Barbara Vos and Jelleke Raats new core team at Embassy of Food

Editiorial

Retrospective 2022: Embassy of Food

Editiorial

WDE Spotlight: Diya Samit

Editiorial

The supermarket of the future: tech hero or human coach?

Video

Curator Tour: Step into the supermarket of 2050

News

Food design, education and a world of ideas with Menno Stoffelsen

Editiorial

EIT Food on making our food systems future proof

Podcast

Chloé Rutzerveld invited to speak in VPRO Tegenlicht Podcast

Editiorial

The new role of the supermarket in 2050

Editiorial

WDE Spotlight: Yuval Yancovitch

Video

Watch the WDE Talk: What will the supermarket of the future look like?

News

Embassy of Food initiates Embassy Lab: Supermarket of the Future

Editiorial

Retrospective 2021: Embassy of Food

Editiorial

WDE Spotlight: Kuang-Yi Ku

News

Snacking on bacteria and fungi in the future

Video

Curator Tour: Walk with Chloé Rutzerveld through the supermarket of the future

Editiorial

Volg de versheid en verminder voedselverspilling met Rui Xu

Image by Bernard Hermant
News

Do you want to see what is in the Supermarket of the Future?

Editiorial

Botanic Bites met Doreen Westphal

Editiorial

Customizing food for health with Annelies Hermsen

Editiorial

Personalize your crop with Chloé Rutzerveld

Editiorial

Get with the (cultured meat) times by evolving in vitro with Yuval Yancovitch

News

Embassy of Food at DDW

Editiorial

Rediscovering traditional Chinese medicine with Kuang-Yi Ku

Screen Mutations
Editiorial

Screen Mutations: tableware designed for interaction through a screen

Image by Bernard Hermant
Editiorial

What will your future supermarket look like? The Embassy of Food makes you think.

Dutch Design Week
News

This is what the Embassies will present at Dutch Design Week

WDE Talk Water- en Voedselsystemen
Video

Watch the WDE Talk: Food and water systems for a healthy planet

Editiorial

Retrospective 2020: Embassy of Food

News

An intimate conversation about local food

Editiorial

Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are (and the other way around)

Editiorial

Retrospective 2018: Embassy of Food

Editiorial

Retrospective 2017: Embassy of Food

Partners of Embassy of Food

  • Rabobank

    Rabobank is a cooperative bank with a mission. Together with their stakeholders, they have been committed to a future-proof society and major societal challenges for 125 years. Rabobank serves private and corporate clients in the Netherlands and focuses on the food and agri sector worldwide. Always with the guiding principle: together we achieve more than alone.

    Link to Rabobank
  • Stichting DOEN Link to Stichting DOEN
  • Province of Noord Brabant Link to Province of Noord Brabant
  • Next Nature Network

    Next Nature Network is a network of makers, thinkers, educators and supporters. With members in 44 countries, it is the international network for anyone interested in the debate on our future – in which biology and technology are fusing.

    Link to Next Nature Network
  • EIT Food
    EIT Food is the world’s largest and most dynamic food innovation community. We accelerate innovation to build a future-fit food system that produces healthy and sustainable food for all. ​Supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), an independent body of the European Union, we invest in projects, organisations and individuals that share our goal.
    FoodUnfolded®, EIT Food’s public-facing platform, provides insights about the origins of our food, the broader food system and the latest food and agricultural innovations. FoodUnfolded® stimulates the debate among its growing audience – online and offline – to create a new communication culture around food.
    Link to EIT Food
  • Dutch Design Foundation Link to Dutch Design Foundation
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