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Artifact from the Future: INCENTIVIZED RECEIPT
Read coverage in Fast Company »
WHAT: Order Confirmed: #01283 (placed on April 4, 2028 at 21:20 GMT+8). Thank you for your order at Shiwu de Weilai, China’s most reliable and transparent food delivery service! Your eco-friendly and 100% recyclable Weilai-Box™ is currently being curated by one of our food safety specialists to ensure timely and transparent delivery of the food you love. We see you’ve ordered THREE (3) plant-based food products. Thanks to the newly-implemented government incentive, you were discounted 12% on those items (total savings: ¥9.60). You have also been charged one yuan to help the state provide health insurance to farmers without whom we wouldn’t eat delicious and safe food. We have gone to great measures to ensure that every item of food purchased from Shiwu de Weilai meets the highest levels of food transparency, so we thank you for your willingness to add ¥12.00 to ensure your health and safety in this system otherwise filled with adulteration and fraud. Once your package ships, we will push a notification to your mobile device. Happy eating!
SO WHAT: As antibiotic-resistant bacteria turn into superbugs, genetic engineering further drives the over-application of pesticides and herbicides, and as food fraud scandals multiply in number and severity, eaters in high-risk countries like China will actively seek out food that is safe and secure. E-commerce platforms will increase the freshness of food by shortening time between harvest and delivery, and can often decrease the opportunities for adulteration by cutting out the middleman. Benefits like farmer health insurance will be something consumers pay an additional--albeit minimal--price, and waste will be taxed. In an attempt to minimize their GHG footprint, governments around the world will look to incentivize plant-based meals as a low-hanging fruit for carbon reduction. And, of course, mobile platforms will accept new forms of payment like major cryptocurrencies and chat app payments to meet emerging consumer demand for alternative banking systems.
How did we get to this future? Signals from today:
A signal is a small or local innovation that has the potential to grow in scale and geographic distribution. Signals are very specific examples that, when clustered together, point to a larger trend or shift. When creating Artifacts from the Future, IFTF combines today’s early signals to tell a new story about what’s possible in the next decade.
Here are some of today’s signals that, when combined, make this “Incentivized Receipt” a possible future:
The City of San Francisco mandates that all businesses with over twenty employees have to either provide health insurance or contribute to the city's health care access program, Healthy San Francisco. Instead of increasing prices to over those costs, some restaurants have added a ““Healthy SF” surcharge on their meals.
The Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (FAIRR) initiative has released a report titled “The Livestock Levy: Are Regulators Considering Meat Taxes?” that explores how governments may need to begin imposing a meat tax in order to meet their climate goals.
The food we purchase is similar to the clothes we wear and the ballots we cast; it reflects values we have about the companies we wish to support and the world we want to create. Foodhini is a food delivery start-up for new immigrants to capitalize on their culinary skills, share their culture, and earn stable income in their new country. The current popularity of meal delivery services creates an active marketplace for eaters seeking unique new food experiences that also support social causes and reflect their values.
The United States Department of Agriculture has incentivized the consumption of healthy fruits and vegetables for those on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially called food stamps, by allowing those foods to be purchased at farmers markets.
What other signals of this future do you see already happening today? Or, what else becomes possible when these signals combine? We invite everyone to practice being a food futurist and creatively imagining futures that are radically different from the present. Share your ideas with us at [email protected]!
Learn more
This particular Artifact from the Future—Incentivized Receipt—is one of six Artifacts developed in conjunction with our recent Food Innovation report, and might be something you would see over the coming decade as Engaged Eaters revolutionizes the food system. Read more forecasts and signals about how Engaged Eaters will be an ingredient for food innovation in the future.
This Artifact from the Future is a snapshot of what might emerge if forecasts about the future materialize. It was developed as part of our Food Innovation: Recipes for the Next Decade report which is a book of recipes on how to create systems-level change across the food system. This Artifact from the Future is an at-a-glance tool for exploring the fundamental question: What is possible?
Like all IFTF’s Artifacts from the Future, this image offers insights into future everyday lives and is intended to give you an immersive look at a possible future change.