SoylentNews

fliptop [soylentnews.org] writes:

In January, Target collaborated with global design firm IDEO [ideo.com] and MIT Media Lab [mit.edu], spawning their Food + Future coLab [foodfuturecolab.com] to explore such topics as urban farming, food transparency and authenticity, supply chain and health. "We're working at a pace we could only achieve by putting all the right people in one room — from retail experts to bioengineers — and then giving them the freedom, autonomy and resources to make things happen," said Target's chief strategy and innovation officer Casey Carl [retailwire.com].

The first of the two ideas developed by the team focused on food labeling. The line, Good & Gather, displays ingredients on the front of packaging rather than in fine print on the back.

The second, aimed at providing real time nutritional information, allows people to scan fruits and vegetables, learn the exact nutritional value and then pay based on freshness.

[...]Other projects that the Food + Future coLab is working on:

• City farming "across multiple scales of an open platform" is being explored in partnership with MIT Media Lab's Open Agriculture Initiative;
• With the assistance of spectroscopy experts at Ocean Optics, a platform is being built that can "see" inside food to evaluate everything from nutrient levels to contaminants

Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle [blogspot.com].

Original Submission