Fish, Chips & Peas
Installation (2014)
Folkestone Triennial, UK

Globally, food prices are reaching an historic peak and the world is teetering on the brink of an unprecedented food crisis. A burgeoning world population and a rapidly changing climate are leading to food shortages that will irreversibly change the way food is sourced and produced. Something & Son’s projects have often sought to re-imagine the systems required to sustain human existence.

For Folkestone Triennial 2014, Something & Son have taken the humble poly-tunnel and transformed it into an eco-friendly, self-sustainable model for food production, situated on the roof of a part of Folkestone Academy school. This experimental greenhouse provides warmth, nourishment and shelter for potato plants, pea plants, and fish in specially adapted tanks creating a zero waste energy cycle and miniature ecosystem.

The project is highly innovative – effectively an experiment – so the outcome is uncertain, but the conception is that the food harvested either be cooked and eaten within the school or will be sent to local fish and chip shops for preparation and serving as Britain’s national seaside dish to visitors and locals. If the former, the possibility of recycling waste from the school’s cafe in order to feed the fish and nourish the growth of plants could create a self-sufficient food cycle entirely on one urban site.