World Food Network Bob is happy to finally see his brother again, although he is just a hologram, projected into the air of the living room. “Balabi!”, Bob welcomes him, “How are you?”. Balabi has not been able to speak to his family for a long time. His workload has risen due to protests against the decrease of nutrition quotas in Europe. Bob still remembers the day, when GAIA declared total collaboration amongst all countries of the world. This action was taken to cope with the food crisis in which roughly 50% of all farmable land had been destroyed by the extreme use of Genetically Modified Crops. Consequently, GMs were banned entirely by GAIA. Balabi makes an exhausted impression. “Tough times, tough times...”, he sighs. “I am sure you heard about the undernourishment protests. The US and Europe are going nuts! Of course, since every person in the world is assigned a precise amount of food per day, they feel unfairly treated from their point of view. They have to pay tons of money if they want more!” A few years earlier, it was still easy to circumvent the Food Index regulations. But since the introduction of total surveillance using artificial intelligence and the Body Manager (BM) in the World Food Network, committing fraud is becoming more and more difficult. The BM measures the nutrition in one’s body through sensors in your blood vessels in order to identify the degree of total undernourishment of specific regions and countries. This gives GAIA the chance to allocate resources more accurately and according to the food index between well-fed and undernourished countries, while at the same time, allowing governments to match your personal nutrition with your expenditures. “Those over-consuming, insatiable gluttons!”, Bob’s father jumps in.“ For hundreds of years, they have been taking advantage of us and now that they are dependent, they complain!” Bob’s father always gets quite worked-up in conversations like this. Balabi tries to calm down his father and gets support from his mother, who is preparing the meat in the Kitchen. “Pakka!”, she yells from the door, “if it was not for GAIA, their global governance and the efforts of equal food distribution, we would still live as we did when we were young. Beans every day and sometimes not even that. Would you prefer that? A life without any security? Now, we even have the GAIA Health Insurance.” Although Pakka seems to understand her point, he still mumbles some words under his breath.
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he had meat. It was his 10th birthday. His parents told him that he would not have a younger sibling anymore, due to the one child policy, implemented to cope with the dramatic population growth. To cheer him up, his family prepared a barbecue, as he had always wished for a younger brother. After dinner, the family puts on their virtual reality glasses and starts streaming a history documentary about postcards, as Balabi had recommended. Before going to bed, Bob once again reviews for his upcoming food exam and then falls asleep after a long, but rewarding day.
Signposts:
■■ Population reaches 9 billion people ■■ Food security increases slowly ■■ GMs are found to cause irreversible damage to soil ■■ 50% of the world’s farmable soil is destroyed ■■ Food supply worldwide reaches critical level ■■ Severe humanitarian crises such as famine, hunger,
Balabi takes advantage of the situation and directs the conversation to a new topic: the actual reason of his call. His voice turns quieter and more serious. “Listen”, he starts. “You know I try my best and work hard. I mean… this is the reason why I am in Europe.” Even though the gap between developing and developed regions narrows in terms of living conditions, wages still differ a lot. This is why Bob’s brother chose to benefit from the new mobility opportunities - leaving his home country and supporting his family from abroad. “I’ll only be able to transfer half the money next month”, he continues. “The price for food here is an absolute nightmare and to make sure that I don’t starve, I’ll have to spend almost all of my money on nutrition. I am so sorry.” He stares on the floor while he waits for a reaction from the family. “Balabi…”, his father begins. “You know that we are proud of you. Don’t feel bad about this. We will make it. Bob is helping a lot in the Vertical Farming Corporation and I still know my fellows at the market, if you know what I mean.” Balabi starts smiling. He looks up and even though the hologram connection got pixelated, he saw his father wink at him. Balabi seems relieved and the conversation continues to take its course. At the end, Balabi tells Bob to look for his old food test study materials in the cloud storage. Finally, as the hologram fades, Bob’s mum arranges the food on the table. It smells delicious, Bob thinks, he still recalls the first time
Trend
Scenario Scenario
Ideation
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undernourishment, and food refugees in both developing and developed countries become more frequent International collaboration is established to counteract the food crisis and other crises Global governance intervenes with full collaboration of its member states primarily on food security issues World Food Network (WFN) is implemented, a mobile safety net that provides a calorie quota to each individual with a minimum and a maximum of free food supply Calorie consumption, especially in terms of meat, is strictly regulated worldwide