The Ministry of Research, Science and Technology commissioned the development of the Future Food Roadshow. Its nationwide tour is being undertaken and managed by The National Science-Technology Roadshow.

The Future Food Roadshow offers visitors an opportunity to explore the food they eat — and the food they might eat in times to come.

The Concept

The food we eat holds meaning in many ways: it is of cultural significance, it carries ethical and ecological implications; it impacts our individual and collective health; and it affects New Zealand’s unique position as a primary producer, exporter and innovator.

A future kitchen is used to make these relationships visible, and enable people to see personal impacts and potential issues.

The objectives for the exhibition include:

1. To show how science adds value to food and is behind the scenes of most food in New Zealand
2. To explore how continued innovation is essential for the food industry
3. To explore how food and nutrition is likely to be increasingly personalised, and that this presents opportunities and challenges for consumers and for business
4. To challenge people to question how food is presented to them – and the choices they make around food
5. To let people explore how food choices are agricultural, political and ethical choices

The ideas presented in the Future Food Roadshow are based on thorough research in collaboration with a wide group of stakeholders. The key challenges for food production, human and environmental health have been identified, and innovative research projects attempting to tackle these challenges are a major focus.

The challenges of the future are presented as opportunities to develop creative responses through science, nutrition, and decision-making.

Approach

The approach is exploratory rather than explanatory. Visitors are encouraged to interact with digital touch screens, to question their attitudes to food, science and the environment.

A range of media is used, according to the best possible delivery:

• To place a food within several layers of context, animated long-form timelines take the visitor through a series of background stories before resolving on a question that points to the future.
• Touch-screen interactives let the visitor access information to a level they control. An array of exciting science stories are embedded within engaging, intuitive interfaces.
• Large-scale graphic panels present a landscape of opportunity and challenges to the scientists and consumers of the future.
• An opportunity lets visitors have their say in an interactive survey that reflects back the accumulated results so far.
• These media are set within an engaging, immersive context that includes a high-tech future kitchen where visitors engage with interactive ‘appliances’; opportunities to explore the wider issues around food.
• The look and feel of the exhibition is clean, fresh, inviting, and future-focussed.