This project involved five phases, initial topic proposal, topic exploration, further engagement, initial ideation and test, and final challenge and solution.
Our general topic is food. Based on the primary research (see Figure. 1), our preliminary assumption is what if the traditional festival food disappeared due to climate change?
We narrowed down the disappearing food to five kinds of decreasing crops during secondary research, including cocoa(chocolate), potatoes, coffee beans, mango, and chickpeas at first. Then, consider the connections between food and festivals, popularity degree, and the severity degree of declined trends, we decided to research cocoa(chocolate). We found that 70% of cocoa were planted in West Africa, and climate change, water shortage, and disease attacks are the critical factors to their decreased production. Some predictions point out that the decreased trends of cocoa seeds may last almost 50 years. Such emerging trends would also lead to the rising price of cocoa and chocolate. Furthermore, the monopoly company could control the source of superior seeds and sale channels, such as Monsanto. (see Figure. 2)
