micoco

[micoco]

CONSUMERS FOOD WASTE

This week, I want to narrow down this board topic. I am more interested in food waste on the consumer side. There are some questions about it:

- Generally, why do people waste so much food? At the same time, the problem of hunger is so serious? 

- As consumers, where are the most food wastes happening: Restaurants? (Dining outside) At home? Food Delivery?(Ubereats, Postmates) 

- Where does the food waste go? What do they think when they know where different food wastes are going? 

- What kind of elements will affect people’s behaviors on food wastes? Eating alone or with friends and family? 

- Last post, I have found some interesting designs about changing the way we look at food. Here I want to explore why our relationship with food changes because of our senses? 

- Whether the different cultures / rituals / methods of eating in different countries will relate with food wastes? Why and How!!!!!!! 

- When people are eating outside, what kind of elements will affect them to order, leading to more or less food wastes? Such as restaurant reviews, or environments, hungry levels, looks of food, traffic time, waiting time or more. Why do the expectations would influence us about food wastes? 

The relationship with food wastes & obesity & hunger 

1.Where are the most food wastes happening  https://foodprint.org/issues/the-problem-of-food-waste/

- Restaurants and Institutions: 22-33 billions pounds of food wastes Approximately 4 to 10 percent of food purchased by restaurants is wasted before reaching the consumer According to the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, on average, diners leave 17 percent of their meals uneaten and 55 percent of edible leftovers are left at the restaurant.

- Food wastes in households: Households are responsible for the largest portion of all food waste. ReFED estimates that US households waste 76 billion pounds of food per year. In terms of total mass, fresh fruits and vegetables account for the largest losses at the consumer level. There are some reasons to cause this issue: Food spoilage, Over-preparing, Date Label Confusion, Overbuying and Poor planning. 

- And food delivery is the third party of the restaurants and institutions. My opinion is that the food wastes are similar to them. However, the main problem of online food ordering is increasing the food plastic packaging  and tablewares wastes. 

- So from the research, we can see that food wastes in households become the most serious part of all food wastes. Combined with some research I have found before: Packaging design or kitchen wares design can help people to reduce food wastes at home, especially the fresh vegetables or fruits, or some apps can help people value the food ( buy correctly and enough food) when they are shopping in stores. 

- And people started to rely on online shopping and ordering because of efficiency and convenience, of course, the pandemic time right now. I found one article: how online ordering could cut food wastes. It is interesting. Before, I have written some people’s behaviors about shopping for food in stores to cause huge amounts of food wastes. However, ordering online: we tend to have smaller but more frequent orders. It is a way to reduce waste and to reduce the total emission of food consumed at home by about 41%. To some extent, it can help households and retailers food wastes. I have used food online ordering, which is time-saving and convenient. But, it is obvious that the price of food is higher than store prices, and also cause other problems like food packaging during delivery.  https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-online-ordering-could-cut-food-waste

2. Where does food go? How do they deal with leftover food?

- Restaurants: 85% will be thrown out > landfill;  Separating their food wastes > Composting facilities; Some unused food > feeding livestock in farms; a small percentage will be recycled or donated. Overall, the most food wastes are in landfill, which increases the methane gas > More CO2. 

With my experiences, after dining outside, I would take away the left food. I feel less guilty than wasting them. Then, on the next day, I may eat them or throw them away. Www. Same fate. 

- Households: Today the governments in some countries have regulations that people need to do garbage sorting before dumping them. I have known that China has become more serious about this. Most food wastes are going to  landfills or become fertilizers during garbage disposal. And some of them can be recycled. 

- And I feel most people have an idea of this question. Most of them do not care where the food wastes actually goes and the results of them because they did not see the facts. Also the prices of most food is invaluable, they do not care more about them because they are cheap. 

3. Different behaviors / experiences related to food wastes 

- Eating alone can be the biggest cause for unhappiness. “The Hartman Group’s Food & Beverage Occasions Compass 2014 data” shows 46% of all adult eating occasions are alone. Eating alone is detrimental to our health. I have some experiences of eating alone. I went to the restaurants and wanted to order some food. And the size of food is so big. Most of the time, I cannot eat all of them and need to take out leftover food. Especially the fast food industry, they hope you eat alone. Can you imagine that, sitting alone in front of the Elemis ion and shoveling food into the mouth, and you still feel hungry after eating all of them. I think it can be a normal scene right now. > Causing more food wastes and obesity. Both mentally and physically, we changed the relationship with food > Definitely cause the food wastes issues in today’s society. Like I talked before, the people who have eating disorders, they vomit the food and eat too much food. 

- However, eating with friends and families also causes food wastes. 1. I think this situation, people will order a lot…….Yes. From my experiences. 2. I think it happened more in western countries, rather than in China. Like Costco, Ralphs, Sam’s, there are more family size food products I have even seen before…and a lot of sales promotion on larger size vegetables or fruits. OMG I do not know whether people will eat all of them…..

Overall, I don’t know. I think both ways will cause food wastes. Maybe eating alone is focusing more on mental health. Another one is causing more food wastes. 

- Healthy lifestyles. I think most people want to have a healthy lifestyle. However, the research shows that “healthy eaters cause more food wastes?!?!?” Having healthy diets needs more vegetables and fruits, which are easy to spoil. It is easy to notice that high-income households have healthier diets and more food wastes, rather than low-income families. That is a contradictory issue…..

So it is just one of the elements that will affect people to buy the food > food wastes. Others: Economic level: incomes, times; Different personalities, attitudes, emotions, conditioning; Lifestyles, social class. They affect customers’ demand on food and food choices, tastes and preferences. All of them related with food wastes. 

3. Different cultures / rituals / educations: Most food wastes occur in the developed world. Food wastes cannot be separated from people’s eating habits and cultures. Shoe some examples below: 

- Sweden: According to Hans Naess, a Swedish food entrepreneur, Sweden's food culture has its origins in poverty and climate."For a long time, we were a very poor country, so in a very strong conservative way we have to eat everything up, and in the culture it's very ugly to throw away food." 

- In developing nations, there are gaping holes in the supply chains > larger food lost. And in the developed nations, most people have enough purchasing power to buy food / They do not like “ugly food” in stores > more food wastes / loss in households. 

- South Africa, like Brazil and Malawi, is a developing country with a lot of challenges such as food insecurity. They have wasted so much food, at the same time, there are so many people who are bearing the hunger. Ex:there is a phenomenon known as Izikhotane, which is a group of youngsters who show off their wealth by destroying expensive clothes and food.

MORE>>

4. Dining outside - Expectation of food / food experiences > food wastes 

- Q: Some Michelin restaurants serve less and delicate, but so expansive food. Do they cause less food wastes? And they would focus more on food wastes and recycling problems? Different thoughts on consumers: do they think it is a waste of money? Do they think the food is worthy? 

- The research “ Impact of plate size on food waste: Agent-based simulation of food consumption” explained some elements of affecting food wastes when people are dining outside. 

- Plate sizes. The result is: Switching from a large to a medium plate and a small plate decreases the number of not-eaten food items by 21.1% and 43.5% om average respectively. Switching from medium to small: decreases 28.4% on average between two scenarios. There are some elements that will affect people who choose different plate sizes:  food-surplus, plate-waste, unsatisfied-hunger, overtime, wait-time, high traffic, walk-out. 

- Biological determinants such as hunger, appetite, and taste / Economic determinants such as cost, income, availability / Social determinants such as culture, family, peers and meal patterns / Psychological determinants such as mood, stress and guilt / Attitudes, beliefs and knowledge about food

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME! :)

[micoco]

DEEPER AND MORE RESEARCH

To summarize the research and areas of food waste I did last week, It includes serious problems of food waste in manufacturing, and business (restaurants, hotels and canteens); food wastes from consumers; the influences of food waste to society and environment; food safety; different methods to reduce or avoid the food wastes in manufacturing and businesses; a lot of new designs, technologies, products especially for consumers to reduce the food wastes and rise awareness; financial costs and profits in food industries and manufacturing; food packaging wastes and so on. 

New take-aways & questions after class: 

- Food manufacturing/farms: imperfect food to cause food waste 

- Second harvest food bank around the world 

- In the whole food chain, where is the most food waste part? 

- How do people value the food? size? health? cheap? expansive? tasty? What can we do to help people value food? Why is it important? How do different countries value the food differently? 

- For consumers: Having food outside in restaurants and food delivery services are becoming the parts of reasons to cause food wastes? Does it increase the food wastes? How do they affect food packaging wastes? 

- In the food manufacturing and businesses, do they use more energy or more costs to store food to keep them fresh and safe? What kind of methods do they use? Are they successful or not? Are they wasting the technologies or limited energies? Not only the technologies or machines the industries used, it is also important to do research on employees, how they can reduce the food wastes? 

- Researching a new food system - storing the food, advancing the food growing system -  to replace traditional farms or manufacture industries - more efficient and productive. 

- Looking for some food packaging design: edible seaweed water balls / edible cookie cups and so on

- Future directions: Food packaging design (edible packaging, more sustainable) , App (value the food and rise awarenesses of food wastes), food delivery app, an ideal food system in food manufacturing, impactive design for businesses > transforming the food wastes to other products. 

WHOOOO & DESIGN & MORE RESEARCH 

The design & projects to help customers better measure & value food - avoid food wastes

A student designed the “Good Food” App - Value makeup consumers’ minds about what criteria their “good food” should meet and create your personal food profile in a form of spider chart - make choices - get feedback - I think it could be an example of avoidable food wastes. Customers can have a new perspective on various kinds of grocery products and have a better understanding of what they want and need from those! https://designawards.core77.com/Interaction/61179/GOOD-FOOD-Empowering-Food-Decisions 

Sage Project: A new way to look at the nutrition labels - avoid food wastes https://www.core77.com/posts/54916/Sage-Project-is-Changing-the-Way-We-Learn-About-Food 

Tupperware-style products: Chicago-based tech startup Ovie has launched Smarter-ware, a line of food storage products that alert users when food in their fridge is going to spoil. https://www.dezeen.com/2018/05/29/smarterware-ovie-smart-tupperware-internet-of-things-food-waste/

IN A COMMUNITY AND SOCIETY

1. The research from the Public Interest Research Center: https://valuesandframes.org/resources/CCF_briefing_food_values_positioning_paper.pdf 

Through the psychological research of values with different people in the world, it introduces the elements to influence people’s behaviour and the importance of it. And it has defined 10 values groups like Benevolence, Universalism and Self-direction and so on. Deeply, it talks about food and values: 1. individual choices ( how customers change the idea of food, what will influence our choices? Time, family backgrounds, belief, special pandemic ……) 2. Community health: sustainable and ethical food choices can relate to one community health. It needs education and community work. Example in the paper is the “Our Common Place”. Similarly, I have researched the “Second harvest food bank” or “Culinary Slow Food Project”. I think all of them prefer the educational impacts on food: change the ways to look at food and focus on one community's health from everyone’s effort. 3. Societal structures influence the food system: Compared with different countries: “After controlling for GDP, countries that placed relatively higher importance on Power and Wealth (oppositional to the Intrinsic values), had higher emissions, lower maternal leave, lower child well-being and more advertising per minute of commercial TV aimed at children.” I think the sub topic is talking about the relationship between society and individuals.  “How the food system affords or blocks us from expressing intrinsic values?”

2. “How do people value food?” from PhD. Jose Luis Vivero Pol 

It is a longggggg book. And It has talked about the food narratives, exploring the idea of food as common as commodity and emmm some others. 

I was looking at: the industrial food system, sustainable food systems and alternative food networks. It points out the serious problems of agro‐industries: farming considered as a business. It focuses on improving the profits, lowering the costs “a low cost food system > over consuming, more food loss or wastes, destroying the ecosystem, employment issues at the same time ……. It has an idea: sustainable development / agriculture affects food production. p38-40.

How do people can be involved in food production - to improve awareness of the limited natural resources, how to reduce wastes and use those resources, preserve the environment as well?  

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jose_Vivero_Pol/publication/320864109_How_do_people_value_food_Systematic_heuristic_and_normative_approaches_to_narratives_of_transition_in_food_systems/links/59ff41dda6fdcca1f29db212/How-do-people-value-food-Systematic-heuristic-and-normative-approaches-to-narratives-of-transition-in-food-systems.pdf 

IMPERFECT FOOD / HUNGRY HARVEST 

https://www.hungryharvest.net/

Advantages: Users shop from those websites, they can get a box of “ugly” food products with cheaper prices compared with other regular groceries’ product prices. In some ways, it can eliminate the food wastes during food farming /  manufacturing industries. / provide job opportunities to people / Let farms get more profits 

However, does this method can largely reduce the food wastes? If the farms still will produce more because they want to get more profits from them? 

PLATE SIZES & FOOD WASTES - FOOD SERVICES

1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335094922_Impact_of_plate_size_on_food_waste_Agent-based_simulation_of_food_consumption

The pdf is about the food wastes in food services. When people go outside to have meals, how food services & “all you can eat” stimulate more food consumption. The research finds out more parameters from consumers to influence the food wastes: food types, high traffic, plate-size, food-stations, arrival-period, flow-rate, wait time and more. 

Especially for the plate-size, the results: switching from a large to a medium plate and a small plate decreases the number of not-eaten food items by 21.1% and 43.5% on average respectively. Switching from medium to small: decreases 28.4% on average between two scenarios. 

2. If the size changes, what will happen:  https://www.refed.com/analysis?sort=jobs-created

CHANGE THE WAYS OF LOOKING AT FOOD - THROUGH 5 SENSES OF HUMAN BEINGS: In this area, the products people designed are interesting to me! And in this area, 

1. Using the cute and strange products to put in the middle of the plate - Let customers feel the plate is big and food is enough - Visual sense to change the mind of having too much food  > reduce food wastes. https://www.dezeen.com/2017/05/11/marije-vogelzang-tackles-mindless-food-consumption-odd-shaped-tableware/

2.Finger-shaped spoon could make food taste better than normal cutlery https://www.dezeen.com/2017/02/08/finger-shaped-goute-spoon-michelfabian-make-food-taste-better-cutlery/

3. A concept of transformative appetite from 2D to 3D. The ‘flat packaging’ concept for substantially reducing shipping costs and storage space and it also provides new food forms. https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/transformative-appetite/overview/

4. And another is about a TED talk, how the music changes our appetites? taste food differently? 

TRANSFER FOOD TO NEW PRODUCTS  - Reducing food wastes / food wastes as valuable sources of bioactive molecules 

1. Zera food recycler - transfer food wastes into fertilizer in 24 hours. However, 1000$ is kind of expensive! https://www.core77.com/posts/60166/Whirlpool-Selling-Machine-That-Turns-Food-Waste-into-Fertilizer-in-Just-24-Hours

2. Book: “Food Industry Wastes: Assessment and recuperation of commodities” by Colin Webb and Maria R. Kosseva - Transform food wastes to be nutraceutical and functional food: phenolic, vegetable, coloring agents, dietary fibers and so on/ Example: a lot of wasted bread - Fermentation products 

3. Exploring the future products - algae can be future food, sustainable packaging, algae bar and so on….. 

https://designawards.core77.com/2014/recipients/algaemy-crafting-future-food/index.html

FOOD PACKAGING DESIGN

In this area, I want to talk about some professionals in the field of sustainability, also about compostable materials

1. Pairish is a food waste intervention solution: change consumer attitudes and behaviors, creating a manageable solution and empowering users to enjoy doing good. https://designawards.core77.com/Packaging/97642/Pairish-Food-Waste-Intervention

2. Plastic Free packaging - which could have huge influences on decreasing the food packaging problems. https://designawards.core77.com/Packaging/84869/Boudin-SF-Plastic-Free-Food-Packaging

3. Using the potato skins to make fries packaging 

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/09/26/peel-saver-potato-skins-ecological-packaging-fries/

FOOD DISCRIMINATION & FOOD WASTES

Food discrimination and food wastes / mass produced

- Food waste driven by price discrimination by retailers. Retailers price discriminate by charging different prices for items of different quality. 

- Reducing food loss and waste potentially will produce significant gains in developing countries

- Dealing with food loss & wastes without expanding production https://www.nap.edu/read/25396/chapter/6#48

FOOD WASTES IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES:

https://www.ifco.com/countries-with-the-least-and-most-food-waste/

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/08/which-countries-waste-the-most-food/

FOOD GROW SYSTEM EXAMPLES:

1. SEALEAF is a floating agricultural platform designed to enable growth of crops along urban coastlines via a modular, expandable system.

https://designawards.core77.com/2013/recipients/sealeaf-floating-farms-coastal-megacities/index.html

2. The Cloud Farms products were designed to make indoor growing incredibly easy in a small space. A soilless growing system. 

https://www.core77.com/projects/37171/Cloud-Farms-Personal-Farming-System

THANK YOU FOR YOUR READING~ 

[micoco]

FOOD WASTE

At the beginning, my three broad topics are introverts, food and body size. And I want to combine food and body image. I found some people have eating disorders who are anxious about their body figures. However, I do not want to talk about beauty (body image) here, or there are other ways I can go if anyone has any other suggestions! Thank you so muchhhhh! 

So I decided to only focus on food, specifically food waste. I was interested in this area because the food live broadcast (MukBang) is so popular right now through eating a lot of food, much more than normal adults. Then some of them were exposed that they vomited food after eating or during eating because of fake video editing.

Through these phenomenons, I wanted to talk about the food waste! It is still a broad topic, It is related to a lot of things. Combined with research, I will list them as much as I can. (I don’t know if we should ask more questions or write down what we have researched until now……)

1.Food wastes in manufacturing & society 

- Why are there so many food wastes in manufacturing? It includes how many different kinds of waste like issues in machines or employees’ management or others?

- Do any legislation in food manufactures prevent more food wastes? 

- In the holistic food chains, why is food manufacturing important in this chain? How many different fields is it related to? 

- How and why food waste in manufacturing will have important effects on others such as food businesses or customers, or the environment? 

- Any management or methods to prevent food manufacturing wastes? 

- The problems have lasted for a long time, why is it difficult for manufacturers to change and reduce the food wastes, any social or financial reasons? 

- As customers or food businesses, do they care more about issues during food manufacturing?

- Research core words from “Food industry wastes” : recycled society: reuse, avoid, recover, treat… / Green production which combines manufacturing industry and industrial ecology / Sustainability / Combine societal system and natural ecosystem (Some words I think relate to this areas) 

- MORE>>>

1.1. Methods: 

- Interview with food manufacturing managers:Any approach and methods they did to prevent the food wastes and food loss? 

- Taking videos and photos of working in the food manufacturing: How they work there and show the realistic senses of their ways to deal with food wastes or food loss?

- Surveys with customers: Do they care more about food manufacturing? Do they look at the dates and labels of food manufactures on the food packaging? How do they understand them? 

- MORE>>>

1.2. Research references: 

- Book: “Food waste and food labelling issues affecting the durability” 

- Book: “Food Industry Wastes: Assessment and recuperation of commodities” by Colin Webb and Maria R. Kosseva 

- Book: “Handbook of Lean Manufacturing in the food industry” by Michael Dudbridge 

- MORE>>>

2. Food safety: 

- Relating to food manufacturing, how can they prevent food safety problems? Why is it so important in the whole food chain? 

- For each part of the food chain, can they reduce the food waste and maintain the food safety at the same time? 

- What are the challenges to food safety? How can people measure food safety? 

- Looking at the food products in the markets right now, are they purely safe? 

- What different elements are related to food safety from production to consumption? 

- MORE>>>

2.1 Methods: 

- Interviews with food manufacturing managers: How do they maintain food safety?  Any important requirements for machines to workers? 

- Same interviews to the food businesses: restaurants, hotels or canteens, how do they deal with the problems? During the process, do they have more food wastes, or less? 

- Datas to show the food wastes during manufacturing. Different countries and different kinds of food…...

- Surveys or questionnaires of customers or businesses: What kind of levels they cared about food safety? Any different social background or educational background will influence them? Do they have basic knowledge on food safety? Do they trust any products or food products which are called high food safety? Any thoughts on relationship with food wastes and food safety

- MORE…..

2.2 References: 

- Book: “Make it safe: A guide to food safety” by Cairo Food CSIRO Food and Nutritional Sciences 

- Book: “Consumer Food Safety” by Chris Griffith 

- Food Radiation scanner to measure the food safety https://designawards.core77.com/2014/recipients/food-radiation-scanner/index.html

- Tupperware-style to show the food lifespan https://www.dezeen.com/2018/05/29/smarterware-ovie-smart-tupperware-internet-of-things-food-waste/

3. Food business: restaurants, hotels or canteens 

- After food manufacturing, why do they also have a lot of food wastes? Any influences on the environment and customers?

- How do they deal with the food wastes? Any good methods? Do they have chances to avoid food wastes?

- Why do food services (hospitality) also relate to food waste?

- For special situations like quarantine, do they have more food wastes or less, how do they deal with foods?  Any different bad or good effects will happen on them because of the special time?  

- I cannot think more…..

3.1 Methods

- Interviews I wrote before, also ask owners or workers in restaurants, hotels or canteens: how much food wastes they have per day? How do they deal with that? Do they have any awareness of food wastes and MORE…/ any costs on food, services…..

- Data on food wastes in food businesses

- Questionnaires: How customers look at food wastes in the food business? How do they think about some existing methods of preventing food wastes like “finishing 90% of your dishes” in a buffet……

- Taking videos and photos on restaurants or hotels I wrote before. 

3.2 References: 

- Book “Prevention of food waste in restaurant, hotels, canteens and catering” Talking about the avoidable food wastes / the relationship with food wastes with hospitality (food services) / some methods they used. 

- CULINARY SLOW FOOD PROJECT 

4. Consumers & others: 

- For consumers, what do they think about the food wastes in different industries? Do they have strong or less awareness of it? 

- During pandemic time, why have people changed behaviors and thoughts on food? They wanna to be more healthy or unhealthy? Do they have new different thoughts on food wastes? How many kinds of elements they relate to the customers’ behavioral changes, such as economics, sociology or psychology? 

- How can they avoid food wastes in daily life? If they have changed, what kind of results will happen, massive or small? 

- Why is connecting with relationships with food important? Such as through five senses? Do they largely affect people? 

- Do they know well about the different kinds of food? Are problems of food packaging as serious as food wastes? Do they relate with each other? 

- MOREEEEE - questions written before. I can not think more. 

4.1 Methods

- Questionnaires: Do they have different levels of awareness of food wastes(social, educational backgrounds) / any reasons they change the behaviors or thoughts on food? / do they accept the new innovation on food? 

- Data on consumers’ food waste 

4.2 References: 

- Change the way of looking at food . https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/transformative-appetite/overview/

- 3D printing food waste / different ways of using food waste / change the ways https://www.dezeen.com/2018/10/03/upprinting-food-elzelinde-van-doleweerd-beijing-design-week-upprinting-food-design/ https://www.dezeen.com/2017/11/29/creative-ideas-change-food-marije-vogelzang/https://www.dezeen.com/2016/12/29/universal-studio-produces-colourful-chocolates-from-3d-printed-moulds/

- Value our food in a different ways to reduce food waste: Good Food https://designawards.core77.com/Interaction/61179/GOOD-FOOD-Empowering-Food-Decisions

- Sage Project https://www.core77.com/posts/54916/Sage-Project-is-Changing-the-Way-We-Learn-About-Food

- Food Maps https://designawards.core77.com/2014/recipients/food-maps/index.html

- Ted Talks about how senses change the ways we look at the food? 

FINISHED

[micoco]

Research -.-

INTROVERTS

Firstly, I may use questionnaires which ask about 200 different people from different cultural and social backgrounds . It contains: Where are you from? / What is the job right now ? What do you think about the introverts and extroverts?(Brief definitions) Do you think you are more introverts, extroverts or ambiverts? Do you think society exists to bias introverts? Which field do you think is more biased or not? Through the questionnaires, I can generally get the data: how people look at the introverts and extroverts. Some of them may misunderstand the introverts. 

Second one is shadowing. One experiment is letting introverts and extroverts do the same projects in the same situations(alone or be in a group or in a noisy environment). Through looking at their working behaviors and working efficiency, I can get some results like which kind of environments or zones they are suitable with and maximize their abilities or talents. Another experiment is about the introverted leader and extroverted leader. In Susan’s ted talk, she talked about the differences between introverted leader and extroverted leader, and which one is kind of more successful in this position. I also want to make this experiment to look at their different abilities to do the same task in the group. How they work with team members, what kind of ways do they use to achieve the goal. 

FOOD

Scientific research: This method is used to show us the scientific data about the food waste every year in different countries. And it helps us to know the seriousness of food waste in those countries and whether the problem is becoming more serious or getting better to deal with it. 

The second scientific research is about the data of online shopping through live broadcast(show the online purchasing power). Live broadcast is similar to MukBang, which is becoming more popular right now. Live-stream eating is part of advertisement and marketing strategy. The data can show if this is successful or not, and how many people like this shopping way. 

Day in the life: I mention there is a group of people who have eating disorders. If it is possible, I want to document one eating disorder person’s daily life to show or look for the reasons to let them have this issue in real life. Some people may not understand why they cannot eat like the normal people. Through the photos or videos, people can directly understand the patients and find different aspects of ways to help them. 

Interview with doctors: Doctors can explain the meaning of eating disorders, different kinds of eating disorders and the reasons caused this problem from mental or physical aspects. Then they can provide people some suggestions. I think it is necessary for some people to understand them better when they have similar symptoms, or help people around us.

Humanities Research: the relationship between human beings with food - Semiotics 

Ex. Food can be a part of cultures - same food represents different cultures in different countries.

Food can be a symbol of wealth; Food can be …….

Questionnaire: It is important to have questionnaires with different people to analyze how they look at the food. 

- Like watching the mukbang or eating live broadcast? How often? Did you buy anything through them? Do you like this way of advertisements? 

- Do you think those mukbang or eating live broadcasts have any positive or negative effects on people or society?

- When you go to the restaurants, do you always take photos first before eating?

- :) Do you always eat well? / Do you eat well everyday? 

- :( Do you always eat alone or with families or friends?

- Do you feel that you have any symptoms about eating disorders such as……(professional questions) 

- Do you think eating disorders relate to xxxxx? 

…….

ONE SIZE FITS ALL

Questionnaire: It is necessary and quick way for me to have information about different girls’ thinking on “One size” and body images. It helps me to find the reasons for buying BM and BM’s success. 

- Do you care about your weight? Are you anxious because of your weight? 

- Do you decide to lose weight because of a certain size of clothing?

- Do you care about what others think of your body?

- Do you think one size offends you?

- Why do you buy this brand of clothes? Is it because of style, quality or prices or others?

…….MOREEEEE

Interview customers/staff in the BM stores: 

Interview customers: The reasons are similar with the questionnaires. 

Interview staff in the BM stores: asking for some marketing strategies they used to make this brand more popular. (Some staff there are already internet celebrities, if they make the brand’s advertisements by themselves or other ways.) / Ask if the reason for selling out some popular types of clothes is the net celebrity wearing it or other reasons? / Ask the opinions on the brand idea: one size fits all ……../ MOREEEEE 

[micoco]

More More More ????

Introvert

The topic was inspired by Susan Cain’s TED talk which talks about the power of introverts. It changed my idea that being quiet and shy is  introverted. She says that the differences between extraversion and introversion are more about how people respond to stimulation, included with social stimulation. “To maximize our talents is for us all to put ourselves to the most comfortable and suitable zones.” She points out that there is some bias that exists in a lot of places about introverts such as in education and in working. And I think most people are not purely extroverted or introverted, and they have different levels with them. In today’s society, people may misunderstand with introverts and extroverts. Finding the balances between them may be a good way to recognize people better and maximize their talents.

Research Questions

- What kind of methods that help us to better define ourselves more introverted, extroverted or ambiverts? 

- After understanding ourselves, how can we find the comfortable zones of stimulation to achieve the maximum talents people have?

- Society exists to bias introverts with different ages of people, different places, and different fields like working and education. Why would they have this bias? Has this bias existed for a long time? Because of biases in society, are we also affected by the surroundings, such as being proud as an extrovert or being upset because of introversion? What kind of activities can eliminate prejudice against them? 

- As a teacher, an employer, a boss, a manager, or similar positions, How can they balance introverts and extroverts in society? 

- Compared with extroverted people, most designers and creative people like Darwin or Dr Seuss, and they are introverted. So as introverts, what kind of capabilities do they have? Do those abilities let them be more successful?(correlate with introversion) Or do those lead them to be successful? (causation with introversion)

Food

- Why is building the relationship with food important for people’s physical and mental health? How does food affect people's daily lives in different aspects? Are people influenced by different cultures, educational backgrounds, social backgrounds or others when they are building the relationship with food?  

- What kind of actions can help people to build a better / positive relationship with food? (Eating disorders are always struggling with a negative relationship with food. There are lots of reasons to have eating disorders with varying levels such as loneliness, losing weight, difficulties in life…....) The slow movement has talked about building a local garden for people to understand and grow the food as a co-producer, to evaluate the appreciation of food in a community. 

- People know that fast food is unhealthy for their bodies, why is fast food like hamburgers or pizzas still so popular around the world with different ages of people? Why do people prefer to have them instead of healthy food, related with social or cultural backgrounds? Is junk food the main cause of obesity?

- In today’s society, most people almost cannot live without social media. How does social networking affect or change the relationship with food?  

- Mukbang is becoming more and more popular on the internet now, why are people so addicted to watching those videos? Do they want to satisfy their desires or others. Do they bring more negative or positive effects to people? From the marketing or sell strategies, are those videos more beneficial to which group of people, the consumers or companies? Are these strategies successful in today’s society? 

- Do people change the way they think about food? “Photos first” is kind of a trend of food when people are going to the restaurants now. For the food restaurants or brands, is it more important to look good or to taste good? Same questions are for the consumers. Also posting the photos on facebook or instagram in someway became a symbol of wealth. How do similar behaviors like fetishizing food affect people? 

- When food is produced, there are the problems of food waste. What kind of results will happen in the future? How does it affect people’s life? 

- Which is the more serious problem, food loss or food waste? 

One size fits all

- Does Brand Melville give consumers the wrong messages, “one size fits all”? Why has the brand become an exclusive club with all skinny, good looking girls, catering for girls with the brand's ideology?

- Why the fast fashion or high end fashion brands, they use models who are all and with perfect body figures  in advertisements and campaigns?  Is there any body discrimination or in this industry?

- As a designer, which is more important: catering for the consumer’s demand in the market or pursuing their own aesthetic? How to balance this relationship or not? 

- How to think about diversity in brands? 

- Do consumers care more about the ethical practices behind the brands? 

- Younger people like the trends of BM or other styles, do people dress more to please themselves or to cater for the popular social trends? Which is more important? why do they want to cater to a particular trend, clothing is that really important? 

- One size fits all, different people can try the same sizes of cloth with different styles. However, a group of girls will worry about the correct shape created from people who are in “one specific club”.  Clothing freedom sometimes will come with judgements from others. How do they look at these biases? Why do the biases still exist now and do they change? 

- If the fast fashion brand (BM) only has one particular group of consumers (young teenagers), is that harder to survive among a lot of brands? In other words, is the popularity of this brand only temporary? How to use some methods to retain these consumers?

[micoco]

One Size

The Italian brand, “Brandy Melville”, has become more and more popular around the world, especially in China this year. The brand focuses on women’s apparel and accessories. The design of clothes are simple but fashionable, included with floral patterns or cute graphics. In the look books and advertisements, models look great (wonderful figures) in these clothes. Short crop top can reveal the girls' thin waists. Actually, I really loved this brand before because they could make me look better when I was photographed. However, this brand only has one size. When the brand came to China, social media had a chart to show what weight girls can wear this brand of clothes. More and more bloggers or models try these clothes. “One size” clothing lets some girls start to feel anxious with their weights. I felt “one size” marketing strategy is kind of biased. It seems the brand is successful: the brand positioning is clear, the customer group is fixed and huge, and the profit is also very large. Nowadays, BM leads a style and aesthetic, which are so popular around different kinds of girls. However, people seem to be tied down by one style. They love more about styles, rather than themselves. 

Cr: The Cut

[micoco]

The relationship with food

I want to talk about it since I find that I have changed the relationship with food in some ways during the quarantine. Maybe because of the strong sense of loneliness (miss to go back to home) and stress from the boring life (Staying at home because of Covid-19), I felt lost, bored, and was unable to find something to make me happy. I started to eat a lot of snacks, went to the fridge to see what I could eat and could not control myself to stop eating although I was so full and uncomfortable with my stomach. After eating those snacks or sweet things, I was not getting better, even worse and guilty. It was not enjoyable to eat the delicious food and realized that I have changed my relationship with food. Those behaviors have the symptoms of binge eating disorder. I started to research online and found that there were so many people who were struggling with different kinds of eating disorders, even worse. Some people have anorexia because of various environmental or mental problems. It seems that they are staying at the dark corners alone and they all want to have normal and healthy lifestyles like the normal people. Also as the MukBangs are becoming more popular, they started to have eating disorders. Disappointedly, those eating broadcasts begin to vomit, waste the food and torture their bodies. So how can people build a healthy and positive relationship with food?

Photo cr: Wuxian TX

[micoco]

Introverts

Recently, I have watched one TED talk, ”The Power of Introverts” by Susan Cain. The name aroused my interests because I think I am an introvert. In public or in class, I am shy and quiet, and prefer to be a listener instead of being talkative and extroverted. Sometimes, I was so admired by people who can bravely speak out their opinions in public. I feel they are more independent and have various ideas, especially in group work. When working in a team as a foreigner, it is hard for me to fit in and feel isolated. So compared with teamwork, personal projects make me more comfortable and confident. Sometimes, my parents will also talk to me and say that they hope I will be more extroverted, brave to talk more about my ideas and willing to communicate with people. Before, I will put “To be more extroverted” as a challenging goal for me in the next new semester. However, until now, I still have not achieved that, except the presentation, which I think I have become better than before. Of course, I am not completely introverted, and all people do not go to extremes. I am kind of extroverted when I am staying with my intimate friends. 

However, this video changed my thoughts and let me feel that being introverted is not a bad thing. Susan talks that solitude lets people have more creativity and self-improvement. And I feel that staying alone, working or thinking by myself is kind of enjoyable and more efficient. Being more extroverted is a good thing and working in a team is necessary. However, being an introvert is also great. In some way, I can find the most suitable zone of stimulations for me. Importantly, I would like to practice my own unique thinking about issues or things in the world and let me understand more about myself.

TED: https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts/discussion#t-91259

GIF Cr: lonerwolf.com