Hanna Van der Ploeg
The Netherlands was represented by food trucks at the World Expo 2015 in Milan. World expositions has been the leading factor for supporting new innovations. An opportunity for countries to show their view on development in economic, social, cultural and technical industries. During the 19th century these expositions where the location for lancing the car, phone and pick-up player. Furthermore the Eiffel tower was build for one of the world expos. This year the Netherlands exposed the trendy food trucks. My question was: is this really innovative?
Nowadays festivals are filled with food trucks. The trucks are travelling around the countries during the summer, to serve people healthy and tasteful food. Fast eating some calories to fill up the feeling of hunger seems over. Snack bars lighting up a circle of people waiting in line around the truck with flashy white tl-lights , are substituted by alternative food bars where people are waiting in familiar environment. How festivals were focussing on music and acts and food was a just an addition, nowadays the focus turned the other way around. Food festivals are travelling around where people buy a ticket to visit and try out all the different food stands. What makes these food trucks so popular?
The theme of this event was 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life'. The theme was promoted by the fact of the still going on contrast in the world. About 1,3 billion tons of foods are wasted every year, even though some people are still suffering from hunger. For these reasons the main focus of the World Expo 2015 was to develop sustainable lifestyles, and use the best technology to create a balance between the availability and the consumption of resources. During the last years the food industry in the Netherlands made development in theme of 'eating sustainable' by integration of new food habits. People are getting used to be more aware of what they are eating by social media and the offer of restaurants and supermarkets. Besides people are copying each other in this behaviour, what leads to the popularity of this behaviour. People shows off with being a vegan or superfoodie.
What motivates people to do so? Two types of motivation are playing a role in this behaviour. Being engaged in the development of sustainability, taking care about the world and the environmental issues, make some people experience the feeling of eudaimonic well-being. This doesn't fulfil people their total desire for well-being, though. Since many years people have been living like the popular vegan en superfoodie, for who the feeling of eudaimonic well-being was enough. The majority didn't want to life like them, though. For the most of them it looked like a boring lifestyle which only allowed tasteless food. Positive resulting feelings like pleasure were missing. This lifestyle would decrease the feeling of hedonic well-being which refers to directly positive emotions. The experience of hedonic well-being should increase to motivate people.
This is what happened during the last years. Concepts to improve people their behaviour to a more sustainable lifestyle, where focussing more on the short term results. The change of behaviour by using the concept, gave people a direct result, what delivered people a feeling of satisfaction. This motivated people to continue acting. Nowadays eating less meat and more local and fresh products is presented in a fun way. Applications with recipe inspiration, restaurants with alternative menus, supermarkets with a renewing and international assortment, cooking books focussing on a healthy lifestyle: this all gives people inspiration in how to eat differently. Besides the social media supported people to change their eating habits. Actions like joining a vegan challenge, running a run and how you made your healthy meal, are posted online. People want to follow the stream, and are al copying each other in this process of showing off.
To conclude, the trend of living healthy what also supports living sustainably seems like a real working concept. The overload of 'healthy' and social media, gives people inspiration and drives people to change behaviour. The improvements of the experience of hedonic well-being seem to give people the motivation to continue 'eating sustainable'. An example of how the change of behaviour is implemented in daily life is the kind of food trucks and the focus of festivals. The innovative concept of how the Netherlands tries to change people their food habits, becomes visible in this example. The exposition seems like a more conceptual idea as the Eiffel tower, but it can be as innovative.
Posted by Hanna van der Ploeg, 25th of November