The diminishing role of Exclusive Kitchen in City Homes
The Indian tradition of agriculture, the Indian tradition of food preparations, and the Indian philosophy of relevance of agriculture practices are something that needs to be revised and followed strictly. — Alok Singh
The continuous evolution is happening everywhere. It’s happening in the way we live, the way we work, the way we communicate, the way we eat, the way we practice agriculture, the way we plan to develop cities, the way we design houses, the way we avail health care services, the way we get educated, the way we trust-distrust social media, and the list goes on. Anything and everything is not beneficial to everyone. The appearance of the Covid 19 gave birth to the idea of the pandemic-ready housing society, educational institutions, public places, and offices. It’s visible to the eyes that the design of the smart city and the smart houses are offering more and more convenience to human civilization. This convenience has a trade-off. We have to explore the things which are not visible to the normal eyes; it needs special eyes to visualize. The arrival of artificial intelligence and the internet of things are forcing human civilization to miss the earlier habits and align with modern necessities. We have to be selective about where we want a substitute and where we don’t. Innovation is not to be substituted everywhere. Everything that is latest, modern, and digital is not beneficial.
Everything has to be green, the climate change concerns and the commitments to net zero energy, sustainable life, and cooperation with nature rather than exploitation of nature are the mission to be accomplished and it demands swift action from individuals, society, corporate, and regulators, and from policymakers.
There are numerous disruptive ideas and technologies which have given birth to lifestyle-related physical and mental imbalance. The modern housing society is coming up with ideas that there can be a housing complex where there is no necessity for a kitchen in every dwelling unit. It means that there can be a common kitchen area on a floor where individuals who wish to cook on their own can use the facility. The source of this idea is not the dearth of housing requirements for the increasing population but the change in eating habits. It has changed to a level that indicates that the kitchen has become the most underutilized space in a house today. The community kitchen has its own cultural relevance and advantages, but the motivation today for the absence of an exclusive operational kitchen in a home is scary. In many cities, the interior designers and the facilities in a bathroom are more expensive than in a kitchen. People spend much more money on electrical work, civil work, and plumbing work in a bathroom than in the kitchen.
The design of future houses is moving towards pandemic-ready, internet of things friendly, and kitchen-less dwelling units. And it can be counter-argued by few that it is justified to have the absence of a kitchen in a house as it will improve the utility of the land; it will provide more dwelling units on the same land by excluding kitchen, and also contribute to sustainable climate goal by completely erasing the input materials for constructing a kitchen.
The promotion of green building and net zero energy future residence is being talked about as well as promoted by the real estate developers and the government guidelines. Climate change is no more an emerging problem. Climate change has arrived. It’s an emergency. Many habits are responsible for this emergency. Many habits need to be changed urgently. The world has experienced changed habits during the Covid-19 pandemic, to live with masks and hand sanitizers and lockdowns. The country is developing habits to live without single-use plastics. The orientation of the society and the policymakers forces an individual to follow the new habit which is for the advantage of every stakeholder in the ecosystem. Change in habits is possible but proper communication with the masses is missing.
There is an urgent requirement of creating effective awareness about the role of the food we eat and its impact on the variety of health of the different kinds of stakeholders in the supply chain. It’s not only the physical health of the consumer, but rather the health of the environment, the health of the finances, the repercussions on the medical services, and its overall impact on growth figures and the cost to the soil, air, and water.
The opponents of traditional food are deep-pocket food industry corporate who spread misleading health benefits and cost-benefit of their factory-produced ‘ready to consume’ or ‘ready to cook ‘foods. The savings-driven expenditure compulsion forces the majority of the population to consume foods that are easily available. The marketing of ultra-processed food carrying high contents of salt, sugar, and bad fats is giving rise to a variety of diseases, like diabetes, obesity, and many more.
The policymakers are distracted. They need to concentrate on the whole domain of food, farming, and health. The proposal of food industrialists to address health issues that are due to deficiency of micronutrients using tools of synthetic food fortification is an illustration of a misleading suggestion. Such fortification is a business opportunity for big corporate at the cost of killing the livelihood of traditional manufacturers and traders and depriving value addition in rural areas. The policymakers should facilitate the consumption of diverse food by the population and ways should be prepared to promote the local food prepared using traditional cooking ingredients and processes.
The Indian tradition of agriculture, the Indian tradition of food preparations, and the Indian philosophy of relevance of agriculture practices are something that needs to be revised and followed strictly. Agriculture is not only to feed but it’s linked to human civilization and culture. Agriculture is the base of our culture and civilization. All the festivals are one way or the other linked to agriculture. Abundance production of food is the objective but consumption has to be careful. Production has to be in high volume but consumption has to be frugal. It aims to create inventory for non-production seasons due to flood or drought or war; and also to serve the world with food whenever situations arise, like today we are caring for the food of the world due to the Russia-Ukraine war and for our neighbor Sri Lank due to Chinese debt trap. We can feed the whole world by engaging our traditional practices of agriculture and food ingredients. We have to revive our ancient rice route rather than think about the silk route which is a modern-day Chinese debt route.
The policy maker has to awake fast. The substitution of traditional organic agriculture practices has already killed the climate, environment, soil, air, water, and health. The big corporate houses with a deep budget for research & development, and for marketing & advertisement are now eyeing the diminished role of the kitchen in the house. The intervention of disruptive technology like synthetic food fortification, digital platforms for food delivery, ready-to-cook food, and convenience-based post-consumption work has killed the role of the kitchen in the home. The policy of the government to encourage organic farming needs reinforcement by creating awareness of the role of traditional food prepared in the kitchen using efforts. The machine can be a tool in the kitchen of a house but it can’t be allowed to be a complete substitute to eliminate the role of the kitchen in our life. The arrival of taxi aggregators discouraged people to own personal vehicles, and the neo-aggregators in the food supply chain - from delivery process to cooking ingredients to final consumable food - are discouraging youngsters to bother least about the exclusive kitchen in upcoming homes.
(Alok Singh is a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management Indore, a freelancer academician, and associated with AGET Business School, Jhajjar, Haryana)
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