We can’t spontaneously convert pictures into printable food files
yet but we can certainly print food from files we design. If you want a piece of
steak that taste good every single time, there are restaurants that print them
on the spot for you, or if you send in samples of your saliva, urine, or stool,
there are companies that send you customized 3D printed foods with all the
nutrients you need in them.
Philip
Brey, a philosophy of technology professor and president
of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology, says “Values correspond to
idealized qualities or conditions in the world that people find good.” As cool
as this technology is, 3D printed food is still not very popular right now
because many people believe there’s something artificial about it.
According to
a study by Paul Rozin, he demonstrated that people tended to reject food
produced through novel food technologies, like 3D printers, due to beliefs that
the production processes are unnatural. It’s similar to how we view organic vs.
GMO foods - one we view as authentic and healthy while the other as artificial
and unhealthy.
Our
views and beliefs decide whether the technology is trend-worthy or not and how
it could be used, which brings up another point by Brey: “Tech is not neutral,
but shaped by society which can promote of demote particular values.” The
different use cases of 3D food printers really depend on the values we uphold.
Some
restaurants use them for efficiency because they can continuously replicate certain foods precisely, some
companies use them so customers can personalize the nutrients and
vitamins added to their foods, while some use them to decrease food waste by
reusing materials that might otherwise be discarded. There’s also research
on 3D printing food for people who have serious swallowing problems and digestive
disorders.
As
you can see, there are so many different use cases for 3D food printers
because everyone holds different values. I only touched the surface of these
applications, but if you were to have your own food printer, how do you think
you would use it?
This was an interesting post, I haven't heard about this application of 3D printing before! I really like the way you formatted the post into short sections with cool photos. I think you were on the right track thinking about how Brey's ideas on values relate to this technology, but maybe could have tied it in a little more naturally.
ReplyDeleteHi Yuki!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a great post and really enjoyed reading this. I really liked the natural voice you put into this post and related it to being out of state and missing food from home. I believe that you could have incorporated Brey's paper a little bit more, rather than simply including it at the end. Other than that I loved the post and got me thinking about how technology is revolutionizing everything including eating food.
Great post! I have never heard about 3D printed food before so this is really interesting to me. I think that this could be especially useful for people who don't have much time to cook and/or people who miss food from a specific area in the world. In terms of ethics, I think it would also be useful to view this topic from an anthropological perspective. For instance, if the 3D printer didn't make a food a certain way (ex: people who keep kosher wouldn't want milk and meat to be mixed), who would be offended? I do however think that keeping allergies or food restrictions in mind is a great start though. Nowadays even if people don't have allergies, many like to eat vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, paleo, or pescatarian diets.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of 3D printed foods, but I found this extremely interesting. I think one interesting thing you could add to this article as it relates to ethics is the growing vegan/vegetarian movements, and how this would relate to that. You briefly touch on how the use of 3D printed food depends on the values we uphold, and since many people are vegan/vegetarian for ethical reasons it would be interesting to see how you could tie that in here. Would they be allowed to eat 3D printed meats since they do not come from animals? Are the resources needed for producing 3D printed meats still too great to justify using them for vegans who who are concerned about ecological impact? I think if I were you I would cut some of the earlier sentences and really focus on what 3D printed food is, and then dive into ethics as it relates to class.
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