The "From Farm to Fork" Conference Held

"Every city is a farm, every house a garden, every family a farmer." This is the motto adopted by Singapore for its garden city initiative. The statement belongs to Prof. Dr. Güzin Konuk. The day before, leading professors, architects, designers and energy experts from around the world and from Turkey discussed the future of food at the "From Farm to Fork" conference held at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. At the conference, drawing on examples that could serve as models for Turkey, participants discussed the reasons for and methods of bringing various disciplines together in food's journey from farm to table. Today, the growing pressure of urban populations worldwide on meat and dairy product demand is bringing to the fore the need to find new sustainable methods in farm management and agricultural practices. In the production process from farm to table, animal welfare, feeding methods, nature conservation, construction and climate considerations, and design approaches must be addressed urgently.

Next-generation farming, the conference aimed to foster stronger connections between the scientific community, energy engineering, agriculture and animal welfare sectors and innovative individuals. Expert architects, designers, chefs and entrepreneurs in the field came together.

According to recent research, global food needs will increase 60-fold within 30 years. By 2030, 122 million people will face hunger. In Turkey, in the past 10 years, agricultural land equal to half of the Netherlands' area has been lost. Designing integrated and sustainable systems for farms is becoming increasingly important to shape the future. Starting from this reality, architects, artists, scientists, sociologists, researchers and urban planners from Turkey and the Netherlands, along with chefs, came together at the "Farm to Fork" conference to discuss the alternative future of agriculture. The conference was held on 18 February 2020 at the Faculty of Architecture of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, with the main theme "From Farm to Fork." Organized by IND [Inter.National.Design], with support from the Netherlands Stimuleringsfonds and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, the event took place throughout the day on 18 February 2020 with strong attendance. At the morning session of the conference, opened by Rector Prof. Dr. Handan İnci Elçi of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, MSGSÜ Faculty of Architecture Dean Prof. Dr. Sema Ergönül, IND [Inter.National.Design] Co-Founder Felix Madrazo, Prof. Hasan Hayri Tok, Associate Professor Kaya Sönmezler and Prof. Dr. Güzin Konuk discussed how the food we eat and consume reaches our tables and how this journey has transformed over centuries. In this section, participants were also inspired by innovative agricultural experiments from the Netherlands, including the "Oosterwold" settlement in Almere, north of Amsterdam, developed by Wageningen University using urban agriculture planning techniques, and the "Floating Farm" project in Rotterdam developed by the Goldsmith Company.

Will "knowing" be enough for the future of food?

Speakers, particularly agreeing that farming and agricultural practices must be transferred through serious experience rather than merely information, emphasized the importance of reclaiming the intergenerational transfer of experience in farming.

A success story from Erzincan: The synthesis of local and modern - Palanga Art and Architecture Farm

The main subject of the conference's second session was Mehmet Ali Bey Palangası, which has engaged in livestock breeding using holistic and biodynamic methods since 1888 on the Erzincan plain and was transformed beginning in 2016 by Kutluğ Ataman. Now called Palanga Art and Architecture Farm (PAAF), it represents an area of 1,000 acres that started with the motto "healthy soil brings healthy animals, healthy animals bring healthy people," where the land is not tilled and all types of naturally occurring vegetation are protected. Here, fully free-range cattle breeding and livestock fattening are conducted. At Palanga, designed to provide healthy food through happy and healthy, freely roaming animals and their ecosystem and cycle, various disciplines have contributed their expertise.

Who will manage the cycle for healthy eating? Is the cycle of happy nature, happy animals and happy people managed only by architects?

The team of architects and artists who contributed to the Archiera award-winning Palanga Project by designing spaces with various functions—Nevzat Sayın, Hasan Çalışlar, Arman Akdoğan, Cem Sorguç, Kerem Piker, Selin Maner, Oral Göktaş, Giovanni Bellotti, Mevce and Eren Çiraci, Dilara Demiralp—shared their views on the subject. Furthermore, in the session where the opportunities of sustainable food cities and the challenges facing urban farming in Istanbul were discussed, Biogas Specialist and Mechanical Engineer Barış Samir provided important information relevant to farm owners and operations regarding energy production and consumption in Anatolian cities and rural areas. Additionally, Electrical Engineer Özgür Şahin presented his comments on how closed-loop energy design could be developed in agriculture and livestock industry using the Palanga example.

Every day, every minute we talk about "food"

At the conference where Boğaziçi University Professor and Sociologist Zafer Yenal was the final speaker, Yenal stated: "Everyone is always talking about food. Yes, we are living in an increasingly warming world, and we have significant concerns, especially regarding agriculture and livestock. So while asking the question 'What will we eat today?' we are in a state of concern and fear about how we will access healthy food. On the other hand, food is a major object of desire. Urban life no longer sees food merely as food, but as an important part of life," interpreting both types of discourse as proof of how damaged our relationships with food have become. In his presentation titled "Food, Design and the Future," Yenal presented his research and also conveyed the proportions of land operated by family farms worldwide. These proportions were stated as 85 percent in Asia, 83 percent in North and Central America, and 68 percent in Europe.