(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
And robust foodcommodity system includes secure food supply (food security), food security (food safety) and a risk-free working environment (occupational risks). This applies to the entire food chain, from food production in agriculture and fishing to distribution in marketplaces and consumption. That means cooking, consumption and storage. The links in the food chain must be shortened in order to achieve good quality, ensure the population has sufficient food and reduce waste, for example in the marketplaces. Because food products can often be damaged when they reach the market due to long transport in the sun, heat or rain.
The food chain requires access to water, energy and transport. Different foodstuffs have special requirements for micro-climate. Not least the packaging should be considered.
In many poor countries, but also in richer ones, there are bad ones marketis with simple hygiene. This applies to both indoor and outdoor markets. Conditions on the market can destroy good raw materials – which in turn affects people's health.
Indoor markets are often a throng of people and goods, and they are largely unplanned. Outdoor markets, along streets and between buildings, are crowded with people, vehicles, animals, goods and goods lying directly on the ground.
Many challenges
The market often does not meet even the basics health requirements. Cooked meat can lie next to raw fish and meat, and the fish is rarely iced. Slaughterhouses are located in the car park among oil and exhaust gases. The toilets (if they exist) are far from the stalls and are expensive to use. The working days are long, from dawn to dusk. Goods must be unpacked and unpacked. Where can you rest? Maybe in the sales stall among the goods. Often it is women who sell, and then where will the children be? Sellers and those who manage the market are ignorant of health and hygiene aspects. Clean hands, soap and water are required for handling foodstuffs. Soap is missing and clean water is not always available. Bird flu, swine flu and Covid-19 all have links to food markets.
Understand, discover and collaborate
Developing design criteria and guidelines requires insight into how the market works around the clock, throughout the week and during different seasons. The market has its own rhythm. Market areas rarely meet society's possible health and building standards.
It is important to understand the market systems in a city and its surroundings. In the wholesale market, dairy products, meat, vegetables and fruit come from the countryside. Seafood is delivered from the coast and fish auctions.
Layout and zoning of a market is important. Each food item has its specific climate zone. Raw meat is placed far from ready-made food. Rice and stacking goods need dry storage. Fish can swim in aquariums and be kept alive. The time and temperature method (HACCP) measures food
the quality. It is a method that was developed by NASA and is used by the food industry today. Functions must be considered: animal husbandry, slaughterhouses, toilets, ice production and car parks.
The market is a meeting place, a workplace, a home for street children and the homeless and a news provider.
Working with food markets requires diverse knowledge through all stages; from mapping and analysis to design, actual construction and use of the site.
A new mindset is to jump from old to compact, closed systems just like on a space flight and on the planet Mars. Everything that is produced on Mars has to be lived with. Water is purified with the help of bacteria. You drink your own urine and sweat. But the solutions must be human-friendly.
Today's technology can be used in the marketplace. One can close systems and create an autonomous marketplace, partially self-sufficient. Organic waste can be converted into energy. Water can be purified with the help of bacteria, in the same way as in a spaceship, and reused. We can grow seafood (Clarias, Tilapia) on land in symbiosis with vegetable cultivation in an aquaculture called aquaponics. This is already done and is a way of increasing access to protein, which is in short supply in poorer parts of the world. Solar panels can generate energy for restaurants, cooling, etc.
The market is more than trade. It is a meeting place, a workplace, a home for street children and the homeless and a news provider.
By collaborating with local universities in various disciplines, students can open new doors together. Interdisciplinary methods and knowledge are often experimental and investigative. Different design proposals are tested with interdisciplinary methods, for example with the HACCP method which measures the quality of food products, and ppm (particles per million) in the air indicating air pollution. The working environment can be measured by recording slippery surfaces, cuts and frequent illnesses. Design proposals and pilot projects are gradually tested before being scaled up.
Eco-tourism
For many years, Chalmers and the School of Economics in Gothenburg, as well as the Faculty of Arts at the University of Gothenburg, collaborated with Maseno and JOOUST universities in Kisumu, on Lake Victoria in Kenya. Kisumu means market place in Swahili.
Market places and ecotourism were central to the research. The market place is a destination that attracts curious tourists, which leads to increased trade and a better economy. An example is a new attraction called Cultural Day in Dunga Beach. It arose through our collaboration and local food traditions – such as preparing tilapia.
The marketplace is the economic hub that everyone depends on.
