This year has shown us that we can’t determine what will happen in the future. And that makes it hard to plan. How can you think about the effects of a disruption, whether it’s caused by a major event, extreme weather, or an innovation in technology?
Playing is one way to plan for the future. To take a break from the problems of today and think outside the box. To envisage different situations and lives and think about what it would take to make them happen.
Agri-TechE participants were given this task during a workshop on creativity led by Method.
The goal was to get people to think about how to solve problems in a different way by showing them possible futures and then asking, “What needs to change now for a favourable outcome in the future?”
Method made a few things from the future, like a new kind of food and a receipt that shows the carbon value, to get people to think differently. These things were used to take people to the year 2040 and help them see the prospects that a push toward Net Zero provides for goods and services.
The workshop took us to 2040, where:
- Food is made locally, to feed a growing number of people who live in cities.
- Consumers know about food production, are involved in it, and care about it.
- “Food waste” is a distant memory because circular production is fully built into the food system.
- Rural farmland’s primary function is now one of “carbon farming” and “amenity,” as a large number of items can be produced without it.
- Food ingredients can now be made, and food production can be done by automated systems.
Coverage of the Agri-TechE Method Net Zero event report.
The people who went to the workshop were given a list of problems and told to “develop the solution.”