Target teams up with MIT Media Lab and IDEO to explore the future of food

27-Oct-2015 - Last updated on 26-Oct-2015 at 15:49 GMT

Target has embarked on a multi-year collaboration with MIT’s Media Lab and design firm IDEO that will explore areas such as urban farming, food transparency and authenticity, supply chain and health.

As part of the tie-up, Target will run a project with MIT Media Lab’s Laboratory for Social Machines, in which it will collect and analyze billions of public data points – spanning brand communications, traditional and social media messages and supply chain information – in an effort to “map the global conversations related to food”.

It will also launch a website with IDEO to identify trends and ultimately explore how food will be grown, sold and consumed in the next 15 years; and team up with MIT’s Open Agriculture initiative to explore the potential of urban agriculture.

Caleb Harper, Director of the Open Agriculture initiative at MIT’s Media Lab, said: “People like to say things like, ‘the best strawberries come from Mexico.’ But really, the best strawberries come from the climate in Mexico that creates expressions like sweetness and color that we like.”

Finally, in January 2016, Target and IDEO will launch the Food + Future coLAB in Cambridge, Mass, which will house multidisciplinary teams from all three organizations.

Click HERE to read about Target's food reinvention strategy.