Smellbinding way new way to get your five-a-day
Sensual orgy in three storey pyramid installation features breathable Fairtrade fruit cloud at the Big Chill this weekend
Get part of your five-a-day through inhaling a breathable cloud of Fairtrade fruit. The Fairtrade Foundation has teamed up with food architects Bompas and Parr who are conducting a unique experiment by creating a Ziggurat of Flavour which leads you to a Fairtrade fruit cloud that you can taste.
The Ziggurat will be a pyramidal installation the size of a three storey house perched on top of a hill at the Big Chill Music Festival at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Herefordshire. It will be unveiled on Friday 6 August. Once you enter the bottom of the pyramid, you will pass through a maze before emerging into a central chamber where you will be confronted with a dense cloud of vaporized Fairtrade fruit.
Leading medical expert, Dr Oliver Firth of the Centre for Altitude Space and Extreme Environment Medicine suggests the Ziggurat of Flavour is not just an orgy for the senses but could be a “smellbinding” way to get your 5-a-day. "The ingenious method of vaporisation employed by the Ziggurat should create a fruit-saturated atmosphere, and anyone breathing it will likely absorb a significant quantity via their respiratory tract,” he said.
“How much will clearly depend on the time spent breathing in the fruit vapour, as well as on variations in individual lung performance. However, the absence of heat treatment means that the vitamin content and nutritional benefits of the fruit are likely to be preserved, and hence this method of delivery could potentially contribute to an individual's 5-a-day quota."
Bompas and Parr are a 20-something bow tie donning experiential duo who specialise in culinary events and have chosen to work with the Fairtrade Foundation on this project recognising that Fairtrade works closely with the farmers and workers who grow the fruit. Fresh Fairtrade oranges, lemons and pineapples are prepared onsite, liquefied by Big Chill visitors and clarified through reverse osmosis. The cloud itself is made using the same technology as Anthony Gormley’s Blind Light at the Hayward Gallery. To see images of the Ziggurat and find out more go to www.fairtrade.org.uk
The theme of the Fairtrade Foundation’s fresh fruit campaign is Power Up Your Fruit Bowl reflecting the health value of fruit and how consumers can help empower Fairtrade farmers to make a positive difference to their lives. By buying a Fairtrade banana, grapes, orange, lemon, pineapple, mango or melon, consumers are helping to ensure that Fairtrade fruit producers not only get paid a fair price for their produce but they also receive an extra amount, the Fairtrade premium which they invest in their communities on things like crèches, water pumps and health clinics.
The Fairtrade Foundation is launching this campaign to raise awareness of the need for fairer terms of trade for all farmers and workers producing food we eat. And the recession has hurt many Fairtrade farmers who are struggling to sell to retailers on Fairtrade terms.
Mark Varney, the Fairtrade Foundation’s Head of Business Development says: “This campaign is about helping people to understand the added value that Fairtrade fruit can bring. Not only does eating Fairtrade fresh fruit contribute to your own healthy lifestyle but you also making a positive difference to the lives of farmers, workers and their communities by helping to ensure that they are paid a fair price or fair wage for their work and can therefore make a sustainable living.”
For more information on the campaign, recipes ideas, what’s in season please contact Faith Mall in the Press Office on 0207 440 8597/ 07766 504 947 or go to www.fairtrade.org.uk
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Notes to Editor
1) Sam Bompas, Dr Oliver Firth and Mark Varney of the Fairtrade Foundation will be at The Big Chill from Thursday afternoon and available for interview over the course of the weekend.
2) Bomarts is a small fruit farm in the Volta region of Ghana, West Africa and their pineapples and mangoes have been Fairtrade certified since 2002. The company employs between 500 and 600 workers, depending on season.The Fairtrade premium has been invested in social projects that benefit the workers and their communities. These include: a small loans scheme available to all workers; two kindergartens; three water boreholes to provide clean drinking water to the community; two village clinics; and tuition bursaries, school books and writing materials to workers’ children. The premium fund is managed on behalf of the workers by a Joint Body of elected worker representatives. Diana Manassseh is the Fairtrade Officer at Bomarts Farm and sits on the Joint Body. Diana says: “Fairtrade has helped Bomarts to invest in the community in many positive ways. We’ve seen children go onto higher education and been able to provide clean drinking water in three villages.”
3) The Ziggurat of Flavour draws inspiration from 18th Century Cuccagna monuments. These formed the centerpieces for spectacular public celebrations. They were vast architectural structures made of food based on the peasant tale of the Land of Cockaigne; a mythical place with mountains of cheese, rainstorms of cake and where all wildlife was pre-cooked and waiting to be eaten. The Ziggurat of Flavour takes the most interesting aspects of the Cuccagna monument and develops them using modern techniques and technologies. This means that it is possible to create an installation that is spectacular but also food safe and cost effective.