Muscle Milk. Contains No Milk.
Pump yourself up the “natural” way: Muscle Milk contains no milk, and hopefully no muscles either. Just goes to show that nature is the most successful marketing trope of our time.
Via 9gag.
What is Next Nature?
With our attempts to cultivate nature, humankind causes the rising of a next nature, which is wild and unpredictable as ever. Wild systems, genetic surprises, autonomous machinery and splendidly beautiful black flowers. Nature changes along with us.
Posts Tagged ‘Supermarket’
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Eating In-Vitro: Kitchen Meat Incubator
The Kitchen Meat Incubator does for home cooking what the electronic synthesizer did for the home musician. It provides its users with a set of pre-programmed samples that can be remixed and combined to their liking. Besides the preparation of traditional styles like steak, sausage or meatballs, consumers can bring their own imagination to the meat preparation process. The handy sliders on the device control size, shape and texture. More expensive models of the Kitchen Meat Incubator also come with a wireless link that allows you to download meat recipes from the internet or share them with friends.
Designed by Daniel Ong for the Eating in Vitro series.
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Pre-Peeled and Plastic-Wrapped Bananas
For when nature’s perfect packaging is just too darn hard to get off: Pre-peeled bananas in styrofoam and cling-wrap, from the kings of convenience at Austrian supermarket Billa. Luckily for the environment/common sense/peak oil, an internet uproar has led to the company pulling this hilariously unnecessary product from the shelves.
Via Gawker.
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Eating in Vitro: Magic Meatballs
Magic Meatballs are designed to playfully familiarize children with lab-grown meat. Young people are more prone to overconsumption of proteins and fats, and are more sensitive to the hormones and antibiotics used in conventional meat production. Luckily, lab-grown Magic Meatballs can be tailored precisely to a child’s individual needs.
The basic meat consists solely of animal protein, and the combination of fats, omega-3s and vitamins is completely customizable. Colors and flavors can also be added to the neutral base to make the meat change color or crackle in your mouth. Magic Meatballs actively involve kids with the meat they eat, so that future generations will more readily accept protein grown in labs.
Designed by Mark Kanters for the Eating in Vitro series.
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Eating In-Vitro: Meat, the Expectations
As the planet’s population speeds towards 9 billion, it’s becomes impossible to continue consuming meat like we do today. Will we all be eating rice and beans? Grasshoppers perhaps? Scientists hope to keep us eating vertebrate protein with in vitro meat. Grown in bioreactors from animal cells, in vitro meat could be a sustainable and humane alternative to raising a whole animal from birth to slaughter. The first lab-grown hamburger is expected within the next few months.
But why should lab-grown meat look like the meat we consume today? Growing protein in bioreactors could lead to entirely new forms of meat with radically different aesthetics, materials and eating rituals. While these new products might seem unfamiliar and artificial, much of the meat we already consume is divorced from the animal’s natural form: Ground beef, smoked sausages, and chicken nuggets.
The Next Nature Lab is currently developing new visions on the production methods, designs and eating habits that might emerge around in-vitro meat. These speculative designs vary from knitted meat, protein powder fondue and luxurious meat fruit, to kitchen based bio-reactors and colorful magic meatballs for the kids.
Current state of the Art: Tiny snippets of in-vitro meat.
A selection of these future in-vitro meat scenarios is currently shown at the highly recommended Food Culture: Eating by Design exhibition at the Design Huis in Eindhoven (NL). As you might not happen to be in the neighborhood, we will also publish them online over the next few weeks. The projects were coached by Menno Stoffelsen, Koert van Mensvoort, Cor van der Weele, Daisy van der Schaft and Ronald van Tienhoven. Illustration by K. Cheng.
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Genetically Engineered “Arctic” Apple Will Never Turn Brown
Canada-based Okanagan Specialty Fruits is pitching a genetically engineered apple that does not turn brown when bruised or exposed to air. This new technology, available in both Granny Smiths and Golden Delicious, introduces a synthetic gene that drastically cuts down on the enzyme responsible for browning.
As with the introduction of snack-sized baby carrots, Okanagon Specialty Fruits president Neal Carter is positive that his Arctic apples will remove consumers’ issues with eating an entire fruit at once. According to Carter, “If you had a bowl of apples at a meeting, people wouldn’t take an apple out of the bowl. But if you had a plate of apple slices, everyone would take a slice.” Carter hopes his fruit will reverse declining rates of apple consumption, and will help to curtail the number of apples tossed for minor browning.
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Enjoy Udder Milk
Infomercial on the hypernatural Udder Cows, optimized for utmost milk production. The video was created by Amir Admoni for the very first next nature power show in 2005, however we probably have to wait until 2050 before the Udder Cows will be grazing the meadows near you, if ever.
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Robots Invade Stores to Steal Our Jobs
There’s a new threat to the world’s unemployed. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a robot that helps to organize shop inventories, making that trip to the store simpler for shoppers, cheaper for bosses, and harder on workers. AndyVision, as our newest retail overlord is called, is programmed to roll through the aisles, checking to see if products are low or out of stock, and if its puny human coworkers have incorrectly shelved an item. Human employees get the bot’s updates on iPads, and are sent scurrying to restock the shelves. Customers short on time can access AndyVision’s map to more quickly locate their canned goods and hunting supplies for the impending robot apocalypse.
With a Kinect sensor, learning algorithms and floor plans, AndyVision is well-equipped to make his takeover of minimum-wage jobs even more effective. The robot currently only works at Carnegie Mellon’s campus store, but customers can expect to see these automated workers in other local stores sometime in 2013. AndyVision might look cute and inoffensive, but remember: In the United States alone, 5 million fewer workers are needed now to produce more goods than they did in 2006, all thanks to automation. Robots are coming to make our cameras, our sushi, and in a sure sign of the singularity end-times, our Starbucks.
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Dyeing Salmon Pink for Farms and Profit
Wild salmon gets its robust pink color from a diet rich in red-hued krill. Farmed salmon are fed on fish meal, chicken byproducts, soybeans, wheat and a long list of other monochrome food. The result is a fish that’s the same plain gray as tilapia or cod. To make up for this color deficit, salmon farmers feed their fish doses of the carotenoid pigments canthaxanthin and astaxanthin.With the help of the SalmoFan’s color swatches, the farmers can decide when their product is blush enough for market. Consumers prefer a deeper shade, with 66% choosing color No. 33.
As with “orange” cheddar, these pigments do not affect taste, nor are they particularly “unnatural”. They are the same chemicals found in krill, shrimp, cyanobacteria and, yes, wild salmon. Instead, the coloration persuades (or tricks) customers into thinking that their chain store’s coho is fresher, healthier and wilder than it really is.
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Where Have All the Cucumbers Gone?
This stunning graphic, courtesy of Nature & More, shows the astonishing drop in food crop diversity from 1903 to 1983. Lettuces available from commercial seed houses now represent just 7% of their former glory, while cabbage hovers at just 5%. All a reminder that the modern supermarket’s cornucopia of boxes and bags is a false diversity of choice.
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Featured Page #04: The McWorld Map
During the coming weeks, we will present a selection of our favourite pages from the Next Nature book. This week a tool that encourages us to experience local specialties through the lens of a global corporation: The McWorld Map.
Fast-food chain McDonald’s is often seen as an exemplary example of the globalization processes that flatten the world and make things look, feel and taste the same everywhere. Why travel when cities have the same food, coffee and fashion chains? Increasingly, however, McDonald’s offers local specialties. Have a Shrimp Burger in Greece, Teriyaki McBurger in Japan, McKroket in the Netherlands or a Nürnburger in Germany. The dishes show traces of traditional regional cuisines, allowing McBackpackers to get a taste of the world while keeping a safe level of comfort and recognition. Unfortunately, without a franchise, some places (most of Africa, Mongolia, Cuba and North Korea) won’t be able to cater to fast food epicures.
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Featured here are pages 314-315 from the book Next Nature: Nature Changes Along with Us. More information about the book can be found here.
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Pineberry™
More hypernatural designer-fruit. What do you get when you cross a strawberry and a pineapple? A pineberry, of course.
Some seven years ago the pineberry was taken from its native South America and grown commercially in glasshouses by Dutch company VitalBerry BV. Today pineberries are available in supermarkets throughout Europe and, like most designer-fruits, the pineberry is trademarked and has its own wikipedia page.
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Spray On Liquid Glass
Now here is a product that should soon find its way into the NANO Supermarket soon. At least, if supermarkets are willing to put it on their shelves, as they currently make huge profits from cleaning products and spray-on liquid glass would make virtually all of them obsolete.
According to its creators “Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and used to protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products.”
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Growing Fruit into Its Own “Juice Box”
Brazilian ad agency AGE Isobar spent two years experimenting in order to grow fruits into the shape of Camp’s juice boxes. Immature limes, guavas and passionfruit were packed inside of plastic molds. As they grew, they took on the form of a box and the logo of the brand.
The stunt ostensibly goes to show that Camp’s fruit juice is all-natural. Though it’s only a marketing gimmick, we can still hope for the days that food produces its own packaging – or be content knowing that bananas already do.
Story and images via Design Taxi.
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A Winery in your Microwave
A delicious Montepulciano in only 6 seconds? This is now possible with the universal Nano wine. All you need is a microwave oven.
In 5,64 seconds at 1000 watt you have a sublime Romanée-Conti. Or create a surprisingly young Mouton-Rothschild 1945 in only 2,34 seconds at 650 watt. The possibilities are endless. The wine contains millions of nano capsules which depending on your mood and taste preferences can be activated by microwaves. Inactivated nano capsules move unnoticed through the body, while the opened capsules alter the taste, smell and color of the wine. Sweet!
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Glass Gem Corn Looks Like Jewelry
Most corn has been selectively bred over the centuries to be a single color: yellow, white or blue. Glass gem corn, a varietal grown by Greg Schoen, harkens back to the days when each kernel of corn was a different color. This variation is due to the fact that, rather than being identical, all the kernels are genetically distinct siblings.
The glass gem echoes the jewel caterpillar, another organism than by dint of its otherworldly beauty recently went from natural phenomena to internet phenomena. Even though we live in a time where computer graphics make every chimeric beast and landscape visible, we’re still just as – or even more –interested in natural freaks as our ancestors who once flocked to fairs and sideshows.
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Corn 2.0: Survival of the Cheapest
Congrats to Sean Serafini, the winner of our April Next Nature Spotter contest. While we received many images of fake nature, Sean’s entry delves deeper into more diverse next natural concepts. As Sean pointed out in his title, these foods are engaging in something like natural selection, competing against one another for the consumer’s attention. Thanks to packaging, marketing, and all-natural flavors, food technology has differentiated one crop – corn – into a cornucopia of different foods.
Sean, please contact us with your mailing info we can send you a copy of the Next Nature book.
Want to win your own copy of our book? The new Next Nature Spotter contest runs until July 31. Simply download our free iPhone app and start snapping. Don’t worry if you don’t have an iPhone – send your photos to submit@nextnature.net with “Next Nature Spotter” in the subject line.
Bring your phone or camera to the mall, to school, to your cubicle or your beach vacation. Let us know what you see. Entries will be judged on visual appeal and applicability to next nature concepts such as hypernature, manufactured animals, and anthropomorphobia. For more examples, check out our theme pages and FAQs.
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Algae in the Supermarket
As mentioned earlier, the world seems obsessed with algae. Not limited to producing light or energy, algae has also found its way to our plate as a new vegetable, and maybe even as a substitute for meat or fish.
As we all know, the world’s rapidly growing population is making it even harder to feed everyone. According to the Dutch company Phycom, the current food production system puts pressure on food quality and security, which will eventually become a great risk to public health. In response, the company developed ‘Essentials’: Algae separated from water, and then dried from a sort of wet, green paste to powder.
According to Phycom, algae are the new vegetables. They’re 100% natural, and contain more fiber than leeks. Filled with protein, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and fatty acids, algae powder is already being processed into certain food products. A two-year research project supported by the Dutch government, slated to come out this year, will find out whether one day algae can become a substitute for meat.
If the results are positive, not only will we eat less meat, we may also stop chopping down trees for soya plantations, and possibly create employment for future algae farmers. Besides being used to produce light and biofuel, will algae also be the solution to the world’s food problems?
