The Museum of Endangered Foods

Food extinction is already happening

The causes are manyfold: from excruciating, rising temperatures to fresh-water scarcity, extreme and irregular weather patterns, habitat loss and deforestation, pollution and heightened vulnerability to plagues, predators and disease. Some of the most endangered food species in the world right now are avocados, cacao and wine. But also some of the most basic ingredients in the kitchens all over the world, such as potatoes, chickpeas, fish, bananas or coffee. It is extremely worrying and dangerous that nobody’s talking about these issues, and that the only “solution” for most of these problems consists of genetically modifying the crops so they can become drought or fungi resistant. Instead, and because these problems are not isolated but complex, entangled realities, our approach at solving them has to be different and comprehensive.

The exhibition

This exhibition aims to put the focus on the ecological vulnerabilities threatening each of these foods in the hope that food will be a more palpable and approachable take on climate crisis. We can only wish that food, probably the most necessary feature for human life along with water and air —which are also in great danger— will make a wider audience connect and become aware of the problems we’re currently facing.