June 18 is "Sustainable Gastronomy Day". This special festival was born at the United Nations General Assembly at the end of 2016 to acknowledge that the culture and civilization carried by gastronomy as an important driving force for sustainable development. So this year's 618, Road to Tomorrow will present a special "gastronomy" - Road to Tomorrow·My Plate Plan H5 Exhibition, displaying 80 unique food stories. Come and enjoy our special Sustainable Gastronomy for you now!
01 Why draw a plate?
The question of what you eat every day may seem to be a personal issue, but our answers are often decided by systems far outside our control.According to the well-known chef and author Dan Barber, our experience of food is determined by the nature of the agricultural system. Barber’s book, “The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food,” subverts our imagination of this system’s future. Rather than a dystopian landscape of factory farms, Barber notes that environmentally friendly ingredients are usually more delicious and better for us.This is exactly the concept of sustainable food advocated by Road to Tomorrow. Our health is inextricably linked to the health of the earth. Eat well, and you won’t just feel better — you’ll also be saving the planet!So why do we put up with bad tasting, environmentally destructive food?Psychological research suggests that human behavior is governed by two reasoning systems. The first is thoughtless, driven by impulse, emotion, or habit; the second is deliberate.When you decide to eat something, which reasoning system is working? For better or worse, it’s not the second, rational type.
Even if we have an awareness of the importance of healthy eating, it will not automatically affect our behavior.How do you translate awareness into action? What capabilities and opportunities are needed?In August 2022, Road to Tomorrow launched the My Plate Plan, inviting everyone to draw their meals. We can’t always make thoughtful choices when we eat, but the campaign offered a second chance to consider what we’re put on our plates.02 The stories on the plateThe Road to Tomorrow hopes to invite more people to re-examine and re-imagine their own dining habits. We’ve integrated the Plate Workshop into our public activities, including our Food Workshops and Food Walks. So far, Road to Tomorrow has organized nearly 15 Plate Workshops and collected nearly 200 plates.For each Plate Workshop, we choose a theme, such as: My Pandemic Plate, My Un/sustainable Plate, My Mid-autumn Festival Plate, My Community Plate, My rural Plate, My Campus Plate, My New Year's Eve Plate, My Earth-friendly Plate, My Un/sustainable Workday Plate, My Mother's Taste Plate, etc.In every Plate Workshop, participants can show off their creativity through their amazing plate paintings. But the audience favorite is the sharing session, in which participants offer unforgettable and thought-provoking stories about the food they eat. In the hope that more people can see these stories, we sorted out some plates for online H5 and offline exhibitions. For the first time, we selected 80 plates, which are divided into the following four themes:
A person’s plate reflects their living conditions. What can we learn about someone from the food they eat?For example, some people pursue efficiency and speed as a way to counter their mounting anxieties; some people are too lazy to change clothes and go downstairs, so they cook for themselves; some people hope to eat well but not overfill their stomachs. 02 Eat, Drink, Men, Women
Food is an emotional bond that connects people. How does a plate show complex human emotions?For example, some people shared the Mid-Autumn Festival family banquet full of dramatic conflicts just like the film Eat Drink Man Woman; some people adopted a more utilitarian approach to their New Year’s Eve dinner; some people shared their grandma's specialty dishes and childhood memories; others drew support from their hometowns during the pandemic.
Food is a gift of nature. Under the background of climate change, how will food be affected? Will your plate continue to connect people and nature?For example, some people did not eat hairy crabs during the Mid-Autumn Festival due to the impact of the climate; some people advocate to eat local food; some people recharged by making simple food during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
What positive changes can you achieve by altering your eating habits and adopting some food-related sustainable behaviors?Some people hope to use gourmet food to reduce food waste; some people bring their own lunch boxes to their company canteens to reduce the use of disposable plastics; some people want to inherit their family’s culinary traditions of three dishes and one soup; some people want to achieve food recycling through composting.These stories were simple and unpretentious, insightful and moving. More importantly, in the process of sharing and communicating, everyone began to reflect on their relationship with food. Many caught themselves wondering: I used to eat such healthy food, when did I stop? It turns out that I don’t eat enough vegetables. How can I make vegetables taste better? It turns out that climate change is affecting food. Will I still be able to eat the food I like in the future?Everyone's plate story is unique, and everyone's understanding of sustainable food is also unique. If these plates can be a start to think about the sustainability of food, life, and human beings, then the first goal of the My Plate Plan will be achieved.03 The Future of My Plate PlanMy Plate Plan is a long-term plan, and collecting plates is just the starting point. We will continue to research and create new projects based on the plates collected.To some extent, these small plates are the data points that comprise our diet and health, living conditions and social networks. These plates reflect the relationships between people and food, people and people, as well as people and nature. This important information is worthy of being collected and researched, and transformed into new solutions to our food problems.In the future, we look forward to adding more partners, including but not limited to:
Plate Initiator : plan and collect plates together, hold Plate Workshops;
Plate Researcher : organize, analyze and research the collected plates, and create new project and works;
Promotional ambassador : spread the story of the plates through multiple platforms online and offline, and stimulate greater social impact;
Supporting partners : provide funds, materials and promotion network, to support long-term output of My Plate Plan.
Through everyone's unique plate, we can understand how the current food system works, and imagine how the future food system can be more sustainable. If you are also interested, you are welcome to participate, come and draw your plates with us!My Plate Plan H5 Production Team Created by Road to Tomorrow Made by Road to Tomorrow & DZZ Translation : jianwen ,Ev, OwenWe would like to thank all the participants of the Plate workshops for their amazing contributions. We will make these plates more valuable and let more people see these wonderful plate stories.The Road to Tomorrow was established in March 2021, in the hopes of advocating for more sustainable lifestyles through food issues. We promote food change-makers by knowledge sharing, public activities, and impact documentaries, thereby changing the food system, rebuilding a better future between human beings and food. More information: Wechat account "roadtotomorrow" / Podcast "Road to Tomorrow"
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