A striking pop-up café designed to highlight the water footprint of food will be unveiled at the London Design Festival by not-for-profit organisation Wonderwater, and staged at the popular Leila’s Shop in Shoreditch in September.
Wonderwater Café raises awareness of the water footprint of food, asking visitors ‘How much water you eat?’. The pop-up event is designed to raise awareness of the critical relationship between water and food. Its supporters include World Design Capital Helsinki, Arts Council England and King’s College London.
Following critical acclaim in Helskinki and Beijing, the Wonderwater Café arrives in the UK for the London Design Festival to demonstrate the impact of visual design in communicating complex issues in an engaging, interactive way. The Wonderwater Café menu indicates the breakdown of the water footprint of the dishes and drinks on offer, showing how much water is used to produce the different foods and where it comes from in the world.
“The Wonderwater Café brings complex water scarcity issues to life in a highly visual, compelling way, and is designed to inspire people to make responsible choices,” explains Jane Withers, Co-founder, Wonderwater. “By telling the story of the water footprint of food with creative, image-led design, we hope to stimulate conversations on the fundamental issues surrounding how our food is produced.”
The greatest impact of the water footprint occurs in the global food growing and production supply chain, which affects the world’s delicate global balance of fresh water.
* The average UK citizen consumes 4,645 litres per day, which has a significant impact on resources in water-scarce countries.
* Food is one of the top contributors to UK consumers’ daily water consumption and represents a far greater proportion than domestic water, which accounts for just 3% (150 litres).
* More than 60% of the UK’s water consumed through food is derived from outside the UK, according to the Water Footprint Network.
* As the global population swells to 9bn by 2050, water scarcity will have a significant impact on food security, with scientists predicting that we will need to consume less meat and more vegetables.
“Armed with the right information, people can begin to understand the global flows of water in food production, and opt for dishes with a low water footprint or select food stuffs produced in regions where water resources are not dangerously strained,” says Kari Korkman, Co-founder, Wonderwater. “Agriculture represents by far the largest slice of global water consumption, so the most effective way to enhance the sustainability of our water footprint is through the food and drink choices that we make.”
Visitors to the Wonderwater Café at Leila’s Shop will be able to enjoy a mouth-watering selection of responsibly sourced food, while digesting information from the vibrant infographics, dynamic visual displays and raindrop-shaped blackboards, all of which convey mind-blowing facts and figures on the water footprint of their meals. The displays will be integrated into the existing shop, with bespoke water footprint menus for the duration of the festival.
Customers will be able to choose low, medium or high water footprint foods on the menu. Water bottles conveying important water footprint messages will also be placed on each table. For further information please visit www.wonderwater.fi or www.londondesignfestival.com.