2007.The Urban Almanac
synopsis
In Milano, during The Salone del Mobile 2007, for the network of exhibitions Best Up, dedicated to sustainability, Positiveflow collaborated with the association Process to realize and present Urban Almanac, the urban version of the traditional farmer's almanac. The concept was to promote the growing of kitchen gardens on the balcony of urban houses as a way to increase awareness on ecological aspects of food transport.
Most of the urban population has lost touch with agricultural production and, as result, at the market buy fruits and vegetable without knowing if they are of the season and local. Where do they come from, in april, pears to eat with parmigiano cheese? From Ecuador, from Argentina? How much cost its transport in terms of energy and pollution? The fuel of airplanes is kerosene, that is very polluting. An airplane use eighty litres of fuel in a minute, pollutes as filthy non catalytic cars. Six hundred million tons of C02 are released in the air every year by cargo planes : a major contribution to greenhouse effect.
Picking strawberries and watering the peppers are pleasant and aesthetically rewarding activities that can reconnect the urban citizen to the rhythm of the seasons and consequently teach him how to do the food shopping in an ecologically correct way, following the seasonal and local productions. With important social benefits: the reduction of pollution and the improvement of individual health, because fresh fruits and vegetables are much more rich in vitamins and nutrients.
