Urban Foraging

Economic inequality, the exponential growth of population, our disconnection from the source of our food and the rapid expansion of cities will only get worse. So what if these issues extended to a point where the only source of food available was the one that grows within the city limits?

For this speculative piece we asked ourselves how would it be like to source our own food from our urban surroundings, from the city we live in. In order to do so, we went all over Barcelona and picked whatever food we found there, to finally cook three dystopian recipes with those ingredients.

We went deep into de city of Barcelona, looking for sources of protein, fibre or vitamins. We collected plants, seeds, flowers and even mushrooms that we carefully washed and processed in different ways to make the most out of them.

“After the foraging we catalogued all the ingredients and
brainstormed three different dystopian recipes.”

It was a complex process of sourcing and researching. Not only ingredients had to be edible, but also cooked in a way that would make the most out of them and enhance their inherent properties and benefits. We discovered that acorns need to be leached in order to get rid of the tannins and that grounded carob seeds were used in scarcity times as a substitute of chocolate.

We also imagined how people would thrive in this future scenario and which kind of solutions they would find to do so. We came up with a series of Urban Foraging Guides by cities, a free resource for people with tips on how to locate certain ingredients, process raw materials or hunt the animals that populate the city.

This critical proposal aims to motivate a change of mindset towards a more sustainable economy, both socially and environmentally. We conceived it to be striking enough to stir people’s consciences, but also open enough for them to come up to their own conclusions. What are the consequences of the uncontrolled urban development? Is our current food production system future-proof? And ultimately: for how long can we maintain this inefficient economic model?