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Target launches future of food collaboration
Target has launched a multi-year collaboration to explore the future of food. Working with MIT’s Media Lab and design and innovation firm IDEO, the effort will look at urban farming, food transparency and authenticity, supply chain and health.
Jenna Reck is Manager of Public Relations for Target, she says this is a project from Target’s new innovation team which is charged with exploring new business and collaborations. The MIT-IDEO project will focus on areas such as urban farming, food transparency and authenticity, supply chain and health. This multi-year collaboration will push the edges of science, technology and design to give people better control over their food choices and help them to eat healthier.
Reck says while it is really early in the project they are looking at transformational technology around food. For example, they will work with MIT’s Open Agriculture Lab as they look at options for urban farming.
Traditional and social media conversations related to food and supply chain information will be mapped. A website will be launched later this year to identify trends and ultimately explore how food will be grown, sold and consumed in the next 15 years.
A Food + Future coLAB will open in Cambridge, Massachusetts in January. Target’s Greg Shewmaker will lead that project, he says; “By combining the boundless curiosity and discovery of MIT’s Media Lab and IDEO’s human-centered approach to design with Target’s knowledge of retail, we can reimagine the future of food.”
Reck says they are going in “open-ended and eager to learn more and understand the technology in this space.” She talks about the effort:
Read more about the collaboration here:
Students interested in working in the coLAB are invited to apply online here.
You may be interested in this soon to open Food Hub, The Good Acre, serving local farmers, growers and consumers in the Twin Cities.
http://www.thegoodacre.org
I am available by phone if you have questions.
Terry Egge, Senior Program Director
Pohlad Family Foundation
612-661-3922