NAME: Marina Bassani
NATIONALITY: Italian
PROJECT: Make eat!
At first glance, kitchen gardening and traditional methods of preserving food don’t seem like high-tech endeavors. But Marina Bassani recognizes that these old fashioned arts may be the key to better health, less food waste, and a more tangible connection between the food we eat and our planet—and she thinks homegrown, home cooked produce can make a comeback by way of your smartphone.
The idea behind Make eat! is to make home gardening easy. Users will simply enter their location and a description of their garden space; for example: a lawn, balcony or windowsill. From there, Make eat! will be able to tell users which seeds to plant and when. Based on the weather in the user’s area, Make eat! will alert users when they should cover or water their seedlings, and when they should harvest the fruits of their efforts.
Once the produce is harvested, Make eat! will also provide ideas on how to prepare it. The Make eat! user has access to an abundance of information on time-honored preservation techniques and recipes. In fact, Make eat! users will be able to enter a list of foods they have available into their smart phones, and Make eat! will provide them with myriad healthy meal options and cooking instructions. Plus, Make eat! users can upload pictures of their kitchen gardens and other Make eat! community members can comment and vote on their favorites.
Eventually, Bassani envisions a contest in which the kitchen gardener with the most votes will win a donation in his or her name to a charity. Finally, Make eat! will supply users with a dynamic database of resources about local agriculture and stores where they can find the most nutritious and environmentally-beneficial foods.
The only costs of implementing Bassani’s idea are in the design, distribution and database maintenance of the application.
