Contemporary Design

The Alliance

by Pauliina Holma

an illustration of roman pillars and a person eating grapes in the middle

Summary:

Through 2030’s, the extreme weather conditions have caused major problems for food production. Due to intensive farming, erosion and desertification have impoverished the soils around the globe to the point of no return.

Companies have started developing healthy microbial cultures that can be used to make fertile soils for growing food in labs.However, the CEO of a big biotech company, sees that as soon as the survival mode is over, the consumers will demand something original.

She gathers together a group of big business owners, to whom she will reveal a secret. In early 2020’s, her company harvested soil samples around the world, learned to imitate their microbial cultures, and started registering patents on them.

The plan is to provide the recipes for these unique soil cocktails, while the other members of the group would be dealing with the production. Because the original soils are extinct, the members of this Alliance could be the ones to bring the geographically authentic products back to life. This newly formed cartel would agree on prices to gather the most profit by selling the recreated soils back to their former owners, such as local farmers in the original geographical regions. The soil is for sale and a bright future ahead!