Hatchtag (an app that connects small-scale egg sellers with potential customers) and Food EQ (a platform that tracks your meal habits and helps improve your diet) were two of the winning ideas to emerge from the Wired for Food 24-hour ‘hackathon’.
Wired for Food, held at the University of Bristol last September, challenged hackers and programmers to change the way the world finds, grows and eats its food in only 24 hours, using only laptops with access to data sets from Ordnance Survey and AMEE.
Hugh Knowles and James Taplin of Forum for the Future organised the event to draw attention to a food system that they see as currently unsustainable.
“We wanted Wired for Food to build networks, spread the word about interesting challenges in the food system and help demonstrate what technology can do to help solve these with simple working prototypes,” explained Knowles. “Many of the designers and coders who came to the event hadn’t thought about the challenges in the food system. Similarly, those with experience in the food system were not aware of the latest digital technology.”
A solution entitled Mapping Local Food came from the ‘Best use of OS open data’. By mixing data from food trade network Sustaination and information from organisations such as the local currency provider Bristol Pound, a design team created a mapping service showing where local food businesses are.
The aim was to break the lazy shopping habits many of us fall into if we only shop in major-chain supermarkets. The service highlights independent butchers, bakeries and food producers that are closer than supermarkets, encouraging shoppers to rely on food sources that are not imported and so cutting down on food-buying miles.
With another Wired for Food event taking place in New York in November 2012, and further Wired for Change projects in the pipeline, Forum for the Future is hoping that the ideas generated might inspire the wider digital community to take on the biggest challenges faced in the food, energy and finance sectors.
I’m very interested in the work of Danielle Nierenberg creating FoodTank – a major forum for players in the food industry to share food.
It’s evident that consumers are now more aware of the smaller player and keen to share our food resources with less fortunate consumers, and minimise waste. Thankfully many of the big companies are becoming involved, too.
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