The Context Entangling with the Design: Problems Existing in the Food Supply Chain
Chemical Insecticide
The food security is usually threatened by the overuse of chemical insecticide all over the world. In Taiwan, it is even more severe because the agriculture is comparably more labour intensive. In 2014, the average farm size in Taiwan is around 2.5 acres, whereas the counterpart in the US is 441. Most of the farmers have a comparably lower investment ability and expectation of harvest. Furthermore, the fragmentation of farms and the lack of integration also affect the organization and efficiency of farm. As a result, the farmers primarily rely on such as breeding, fertilisers and chemical insecticide more than on high-efficient in large scale but costly agricultural machinery.
Unbalanced Food Production and Distribution System
In Taiwan, most of the If planting vegetable can be never a privilege for high-social class minority, it can contribute to forming a distributed and liberal productive network. Once if a food crisis happens, the network can balance the shortage and price fluctuation of food.
Prototyping and Testing
We presented our prototypes on several exhibitions which were organised by local associations for promoting civic agriculture to communities. We also interviewed dozens of residents and community leaders living in Taipei.
We utilised Judgmental Sampling and Snowball Sampling so as to ensure that we did collect the needs and desires of the urban residents
In conclusion, we find that
- Their living space is too narrow to grow vegetables.
- Their life is so busy that they have no sufficient time to take care of vegetables.
- Their income is not enough for them to buy expensive gardening tools.
Design
Planter is compatible with various types of indoor environments and different amount of vegetables the users want to plant. Miaomiao can be connected by their ends like a LEGO game so that the users are able to decide the numbers of layers and the total length. In addition, it is available to be set with a stand or to be hang with a hook.
Moreover, Planter is a non-electrical device, you don’t need to worry about the quantity of electric charge. Also, the vegetables of Miaomiao absorb the nutrition from the liquid fertiliser, it does not need to apply fertiliser and kill injurious insect pest, only a place with sufficient sunshine is needed. As a result, the vegetables can grow healthily.//miaomiao.strikingly.com/