A Single Carrot

Living in Bra, studying at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that food (and perhaps wine) is the only thing worth talking about. Art, music or heaven forbid, politics or economics, merely play a supporting role in UNISG life next to the great, all encompassing issue of gastronomy. I have kept telling myself these past nine months that the real world, outside of the bubble, only cares so much for this stuff.

So, imagine my surprise and delight to find that, upon my return to the “real world” of London, the summer block buster exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum - the most coveted temple of art and culture in this great city – was, none other than, Food!

This V&A exhibition space has, in past years, played host to iconic and glamorous exhibitions of the work of David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Alexander McQueen. But this summer and until the autumn, the opening room of the exhibition is dedicated entirely to shit.

Toilets that use no water and turn human faeces into compost and ceramic objects made from cow manure are just some the items on display in the opening of this bold exhibition which aims to reconsider the way that we farm, trade, eat and dispose of food.

Mushrooms growing from used coffee grains

One of the most beautiful exhibits in this frank and sometimes disturbing show is a bed of mushrooms, grown from the nutrients left in used coffee granules from the museum’s café. These mushrooms, when harvested will be again served in the café as food giving visitors a neat, local example of circularity in the food system. More alarming is a 15min video on industrial agriculture that shows chickens being machine harvested like crops and aerial footage of the endless miles of polytunnels that supply much of our supermarket fruit and vegetables.

Other items require a little more imagination to process but are no less impactful. The passport of a banana that has made a 14 day, 8800 km journey from Ecuador to a supermarket in Iceland questions our assumptions about simplistic “made in” labels, whilst the CV of a Spanish peasant farmer, written in the self promoting style of a corporate executive, demonstrates the vital economic and ecological role played by small scale farmers.

The exhibition provides a punchy and poignant take on the global food industry and the need for a more sustainable food system. Returning to London after my studies at UNISG, it was a fitting reminder of the importance of the subject I have chosen, and its current place in the national consciousness.