Sustainable Food Design: A Four-Dimensional Transformation of Theory and Methodology Towards Post Carbon Era

Abstract

Food design is an emerging field of research in the past decade, with interdisciplinary attributes that integrate culture, ecology, health, and society. Especially in the post-epidemic and post-carbon context, the importance of food design as a pathway to sustainable development has been gradually highlighted. By summarizing the food design research from the perspectives of eating, cooking, experience design of food, as well as ecology, agriculture, and system design of food, the article defines the research scope of sustainable food design. Based on this, the author proposes a four-dimensional transformation theory of food design in the post-carbon context and analyzes how to translate strategy into action with case studies. The four-dimensional transformation are from Human-Centered to Life-Centered, from Object-Centered to Hyper-object Centered, from Experience-Economy to Post-Carbon Economy, from design for consumption to design for Crisis. In this way, the article builds a new framework and guideline for sustainable food design and propose strategies to deal with the crisis of the times.