Connected Seeds and Sensors: supporting sustainable food-growing in the city

在这份提案中，我们调查了物联网如何支持城市中更可持续的食品生产和消费。使用参与式设计方法，我们将共同创建，进行和评估我们的研究与Spitalfields城市农场，一个城市基层粮食种植社区。我们将使用连接的传感器和跟踪技术来支持讲述种子和植物的故事，以及种植它们的人。通过智能种子库的开发，我们将探讨智能传感器、数据收集和参与式共同设计的结合如何有助于提高认识、增强社区能力和增加对可持续城市食品实践的参与。世界卫生组织关于城市农业的一份报告发现，伦敦居民养活自己的方式从根本上讲是社会、经济和环境不可持续的，而伦敦市需要整个英国的表面积才能养活自己（Pingdom，2001），这肯定是不可持续的。这里的可持续性指的是世界环境与发展委员会（1987年）的定义，即“既满足当代人的需要，又不损害后代人满足其需要的能力的发展。“为了进一步加剧城市中不可持续的食品做法的问题，欧盟立法的拟议修改将使小规模农民更难以保存和交换种子。新的法律有利于独特、统一和稳定的品种，并要求每种种子每年缴纳注册费。土壤协会等一些组织认为，这将有利于孟山都等大型种子垄断企业，并将对生物多样性产生负面影响。种子库（也称为种子库）的存在是为了保护遗传生物多样性，（Tanksley和McCouch，1997年）面对种子公司出售的植物品种数量减少。它们为那些希望用种子种植自己的食物而不必依赖购买种子的人提供了一种资源。尽管相对富裕和粮食安全，西方消费者被描述为生活在一个由一系列粮食恐慌和农业危机引发的“焦虑时代”（杰克逊，2010年）。种子库提供了一种安全感，因为它知道种子的来源，并降低了疾病、转基因和化学污染的风险。园丁可以从适应当地气候和微气候的植物中选择种子。种子作为礼物交换的一部分被分享（Mauss，1954），因此有助于社会，经济和个人福祉。我们将与Spitalfields城市农场合作，以确定如何最好地捕捉有关粮食种植实践的信息，重点是种子。与农场社区一起，我们将创建一个互动的种子银行，以简单，可访问和直观的方式将用户与农场和网络上的种子故事联系起来。我们将与农场合作，反复构建、完善和评估智能种子库原型，在一些研讨会和种子交换活动中向最终用户展示研究解决方案。我们将使用定性和定量评估方法（包括访谈的主题分析;用户和传感器数据的统计分析）。我们将通过公开展览，工具包，短片，食品和食品技术行业的小组讨论以及学术研讨会来传播我们的研究结果，以促进对可持续城市食品实践物联网感兴趣的英国研究人员网络的发展。

In this proposal we investigate the ways in which Internet of Things can support more sustainable food production and consumption in the city. Using participatory design methods, we will co-create, conduct, and evaluate our research with Spitalfields City Farm , an urban grassroots food-growing community. We will use connected sensors and tracking technologies to support the telling of stories of seeds and plants, as well as the people who grew them. Through the development of a smart seed-bank we will interrogate how the combination of smart sensors, data collection, and participatory co-design can help raise awareness, empower communities and increase participation in sustainable urban food practices.A report of The World Health Organisation on urban agriculture found that the ways in which London's residents feed themselves are fundamentally socially, economically and environmentally unsustainable, and that the city of London requires the entire surface area of the UK in order to feed itself (Petts, 2001), which is certainly not sustainable. Sustainability here refers to the definition of the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."To further compound the problem of unsustainable food-practices in the city, proposed changes to EU legislation will make it more difficult for small-scale farmers to save and exchange seeds. The new laws favour distinct, uniform and stable varieties, and require an annual registration fee for each type of seed. Some such as the Soil Association argue that this will favour large corporate seed monopolies such as Monsanto, and will impact negatively on biodiversity. Seed banks (also known as seed libraries) exist as a way to preserve genetic biodiversity, (Tanksley & McCouch, 1997) in the face of dwindling numbers of plant varieties sold by seed companies. They provide a resource to people wishing to grow their own food from seed, without having to rely on buying them. Despite relative affluence and food security, consumers in the West are described as living through an 'age of anxiety' provoked by a range of food scares and farming crises (Jackson, 2010). Seed banks provide a sense of security due to knowledge of provenance and reduced risk of disease, GM and chemical contamination. Gardeners can choose seed from plants that have adapted to local climates and micro-climates. Seeds are shared as part of the gift exchange (Mauss, 1954), therefore contributing to social, economical and personal well-being.We will work with Spitalfields City Farm to identify how best to capture information about food-growing practices with a focus on seeds. Together with the farm community we will create an interactive seed-bank for connecting users to the stories of the seeds on the farm and across the web in simple, accessible, and intuitive ways. We will iteratively build, refine and evaluate the smart seed-bank prototype in collaboration with the farm, exposing the research solutions to the end-users at a number of workshops and seed-swap events. We will use qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods (including thematic analysis of interviews; statistical analysis of user and sensor data). We will disseminate our findings through a public exhibition, a toolkit, a short film, a panel discussion for the food and food-technology industry, and an academic workshop to seed the growth of a UK network of researchers interested in Internet of Things for sustainable urban food practices.