foodconscious

Sarah Calandro Masters of Design Candidate, Communication Planning and Information Design

Stacie Rohrbach, Thesis Advisor Carnegie Mellon University, 2011

What if grocery shopping today was completely different?

What would it be like if your grocery store had bins of freshly delivered food straight from the farm instead of aisles of boxed convenience foods?

What if your grocery store was more like a farmers market? Or a community garden?

What if grocery shopping was more about buying ingredients for cooking rather than pre-prepared meals to be microwaved?

The food movement* is shifting our food culture towards Sitopia.**The food movement is a “collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies–one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place.” (Feenstra, 2002)

Sitopia, or “Food Place,” is a place where eating whole foods is the norm; where we are healthy, our earth is healthy, and we have a connection to the food we consume; processed foods are rarely consumed and not widely accessible; we know what healthy food is and we have access to it. (Steel, 2008)

Slowly, but surely, an improved grocery store model

will emerge. With foodconscious, you can be part of it.

foodconscious intervenes on the failing industrial food system we have today and–step by step–furthers communities, and their local grocery stores, towards Sitopia.

As a grocery owner, you have the opportunity to be an agent for change; an opportunity that ensures you are at the forefront of the food movement and that your business will be better in the future

foodconscious is dedicated to helping you be part of the food movement by influencing the current supply and demand cycle of your grocery store. It provides a link between you and your shoppers by fostering an open conversation and a strong relationship. The service enables you to provide better access to real (whole) foods at a lower cost to the community along with a support system around a lifestyle of healthy eating. The service provides you with the tools you need to slowly and efficiently transition into being more conscious of the food you provide to your community.

Phases 1, 2, and 3 all contain barriers that are matters of personal responsibility. Phase 4’s barrier is a matter of community responsibility.

Motivation to eat healthy, seek out the knowledge to understand what is healthy, and then apply that knowledge and motivation by cooking, tracking habits, and choosing healthier options are major individual undertakings.

Nee

ds a

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the

jour

ney

Access toHealthy Food

ApplicationSkills

Information &Understanding

Motivation

The Healthy Eater’s Journey

Phase 1:UnhealthyApathetic

Phase 4:Healthy Sustainer

Phase 2:Motivated Early Learner

Phase 3:Active Applier

Once an eater gets closer to successful maintenance, she still has a barrier to eating healthy. That barrier is access to the healthy food itself.

Why do your customers need your help? ...because they can’t do it alone.

Access to food is one of the greatest barriers to eating healthy. As eaters move along the healthy eating journey, access to healthy food becomes more important to people because they begin to directly seek out and explore a wider variety of healthy foods. It quickly becomes apparent that, due to a lack of services and social support, their biggest hurdle to maintaining a healthy diet is accessibility to healthy food. A healthy eater can know everything there is to know about eating right and be motivated to do so; but if she has to drive across town, shop at two grocery stores to get healthy food, pay double the cost, or simply settle for lower quality foods, she’s likely not going to sustain success.

Currently, there’s an exhaustive list of resources fulfilling the needs of the apathetic, early learners, and active appliers: an overabundance of motivational campaigns, informational books, health facts, commercials, newspaper articles, diet programs,

Deciding to eat healthy is a personal problem. Having the means to actually do it is a community problem.

nutritional information, food pyramids, etc. They are all sending a similar message with different levels of engagement. “Eat more fruits and vegetables!” they say.

The list of services for healthy eaters is much slimmer. Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s, Community Supported Agriculture, Farmers’ Markets, Food Co-ops, and Community Gardens are spread across cities–maybe just one or two per big city. For most of these resources, whole food is either too expensive or inconveniently located. Also, where these services do exist, they enable the growing market of healthy eaters to opt out of the local conventional grocery store.

“The human animal is adapted to, and apparently can thrive

on, an extraordinary range of different diets, but the Western

diet, however you define it, does not seem to be one of them.”

-Michael Pollan, 2008

The Western

Dietcheap food processes

cheap, low quality foods

+ chemical additives

unhealthy foodconsumption

a rise in western disease

lead to lead to leads to

Over the past 150 years, the US Food System has experienced dramatic changes in an attempt to mass produce food so that more people have access to it at a lower cost. Through industrializing farming practices and utilizing science to make the growing, preparing, and transporting of food more widespread and efficient, we are able to produce more grain and beef than we ever have in farming history. The western diet that has materialized due to the industrialization of farming, while inexpensive and convenient, is high in fat, sugar, and empty calories. It is the only diet in the history of humankind that humans cannot thrive on. In fact, it is one

of the main causes for the rise in western diseases–obesity, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, etc.* The effort to make food cheap and convenient has resulted in widespread disease–and that is a global problem.

It’s not just a personal problem and a community problem. It’s a global problem...

*In 2001, NCDs [western diseases] accounted for 60%

of the 56 million deaths annually and 47% of the global

burden of disease. According to the World Health

Organization (WHO), NCDs are largely a result of

lifestyle choices–namely too much processed food

and too little physical activity. (NCD Control 2010)

...and this global problem impacts the quality of the products you sell.

Since its inception in the mid-1800s, the grocery store has evolved into the primary source of food for individuals. In recent years–due to food industrialization–this service isn’t sufficient because it’s actually unhealthy for the public. As a grocery store owner, it’s not your fault this has happened. Your grocery store is a business doing what a business does: it sells products to people for profit.

Because of the state of the food system, it’s important that the product you stock on your shelves is healthy for the public; and not just for the health of the public, but for the viability of your business. But what can you do? You can’t just drastically change your product overnight or start stocking more healthy foods, on a whim.

One of the great challenges of conventional food providers today is to find a way to make whole food more accessible to more people–in proximity, cost, and availability. If achieved, whole food will be more practical to buy.

FoodConcious recasts your store as a community resource, where whole foods are abundant and customers rely on you to partner with them to create and sustain a healthier life.

foodconscious supports a balanced, customer-driven progression towards the stocking, consumption, and discounting of healthier foods for the loyal health focused customers in the community. The service will start small and only be used by the healthy eaters in your community. As it catches on and the healthy eaters benefit from it, other eater types will be drawn in and their endeavors to be healthy will be more achievable.

With this service, customers will sign up as members of the foodconscious program. They will then be able to give their input on the whole foods they’d like you to stock. Swipe cards will keep track of the ratio of each customer’s whole food to processed

food consumption over time. As members of the program, customers will promise you that they will buy a larger proportion of whole foods than processed foods. So long as they do this, you will reduce the cost of their whole food purchases. As customers become more vested in the program, a tighter bond and expectation will develop. As they continue widening the gap of their whole food to processed food ratio, you will continue discounting their whole food purchases.*

*Of course, there is a cap to the amount of discount

an individual can have. The cap will be dependent on

food wholesale cost and other factors to ensure you

don’t lose money on the product.

foodconscious is a flexible cycle that grows along with the customers and the store. As more customers participate, the service will expand. Whatever needs may arise, the service will adapt.

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knowledge about your customer community.

new loyal customers.

incentive for collaborating with your customers: revenue will increase as customers grow in abundance and loyalty and as more whole foods turnover.

a relationship with your customers that provides a unique customer-grocer experience.

a forward-thinking, trustworthy reputation with the community at large.

a higher status in the community; you won’t just be a grocery store, rather, you’ll be a community food hub interested in the well-being of the people you serve.

the potential for reduced- cost access to whole food as relationships with farmers and other food resources strengthen.

With foodconscious, you will gain:

The Grocery Store

trackand visualize

consumption over time

supportcommunity building

promiseto lower price

stockproducts

changewhat’s stocked

buy

stoc

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propose

change

promisepromise

collect

visualize

build

support

serv

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cont

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s tow

ards

Sito

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better access to healthy food in their neighborhood grocery store.

a greater awareness of how they shop for food and a better strategy for shopping.

incentive beyond just the desire to eat healthy: the longer they are an active participant, the greater the benefits they will receive.

a voice in the grocery store and open-ended customer-grocer and customer-customer conversation.

the capability of suggesting and implementing activities that further advance the community towards Sitopia.

a flexible service tailored to their needs and a grocery shopping experience like no other. personalized visualizations of whole food to processed food consumption over time.

With foodconscious, your customers will gain:

The Customer Community

collect whole food by purchasing over time

build community

promise to buy more

buy products

propose new stu

buy

stoc

k

propose

change

promisepromise

collect

visualize

build

support

serv

ice

cont

inue

s tow

ards

Sito

pia

startservice

The food movement is growing. New services are rapidly emerging to address the problem.

Do you want to be part of the change or get left behind?

It allows all of your customers to be healthy, happy, and live longer. If you start selling more whole foods than processed foods, your customers will grow and your revenue will increase because you offer a service that no other store like you offers.

It causes sickness in your non-healthy customers and inconvenience for your healthy customers. If this continues into the future, the health of your customers and your business is at stake. Your store will diminish in the future and you won’t have much to offer to your community.

The ideal grocery store model is whole food focused.

Currently, the grocery store model is processed food focused.

Broccoli cheddar flavored rice

Rice with broccoli and cheddar cheese

foodconscious helps to pull your grocery store out of the failing supply chain so that your community can take a leap towards Sitopia.foodconsciousde

pend

s on

depends on

depends on

depends on

depends

on

depends ondepends on

the healthof your

community

What’s inthe kitchen

What isbought at the

grocery

What isavailable

to buy

What the grocery decides to stock

What products areavailable to stock

Agricultureand Industrial

demand

Over time, whatever foods are being consumed get more accessible and inexpensive and, therefore more desirable to buy.

The Consumption Supply and Demand Cycle

What’s consumed determines

It’s important for you, the community grocer, to be foodconscious because:

you want to offer your customers healthy whole foods that your competitors do not.

you want to change the way your store is viewed as a company both within the community and at large.

you want to bring in new customers and offer them an experience, not just a grocery shopping trip.

you want to engage your customers with the high quality foods that you sell, not just rope them in with the occasional weekly special.

Will you do it?

Chrisotb. Grains, Ecuador 2006. Photograph. Flickr. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <Chrisotb. Farmers Market Colors 2009. Photograph. Flickr. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindslurd/3636419295/>.

Feenstra, Gail. “Creating Space for Sustainable Food Systems: Lessons from the Field.” Agriculture and Human Values 19 (2002): 99-106. Print.

Hicks, James. Farmers’ Market 2010. Photograph. Flickr. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <Hicks, James. Farmers’ Market 2010. Photograph. Flickr. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/gonetomorrow00/5077282932/>.

Jane Rhee, Sarah. CSA Rocks! 2007. Photograph. Flickr. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/sierraromeo/541049922/>.

jdoehling. One Lonely Sweet Pea Plant 2009. Photograph. Flickr. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <jdoehling. One Lonely Sweet Pea Plant 2009. Photograph. Flickr. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaboodler/3647377369/>.

Lindsay_NYC. Farmers Market Colors 2009. Photograph. Flickr. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <Lindsay_NYC. Farmers Market Colors 2009. Photograph. Flickr. Web. 12 Apr. 2011. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/lindslurd/3636419295/>.

“Noncommunicable Disease Control.” Encyclopedia of Public Health. Ed. Lester Breslow. Gale Cengage, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 16 Apr, 2010

Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.

Steel, Carolyn. “Chapter 7: Sitopia.” Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives. London: Chatto & Windus, 2008. Print.

References