Panificio

In my studio class we watched a film about American suburbs and how the current way that cities and suburbs are set up will not work for the future. Oil drilling operates on a bell curve. We are approaching the climax of that curve (around 2010) and from then on the supply will go drastically down. This means that the whole American lifestyle will have to change. It has great potential to affect the global economy as well because we get so many cheap products from overseas. Once the oil prices rise, it will not be profitable for companies to pay the increased transport fees. This will greatly affect what kind of products will be available to consumers as well as the type of jobs we will have. People may have to devote more time to agriculture in order to get food. And neighborhoods will have to become actual communities and work together. The movie was rather pessimistic but I think it had to be in order to get the point across. Everyone needs to use less and use what we have better.

In the afternoon we went to an actual bakery called Panificio and the baker Carmelo demonstrated to our class how to make bread by hand. We learned how to knead dough, how to determine if you have good flour, and how to make bread without molds for shapes. He was very adament about making the best bread and strongly advocated buying the best food and ingredients. "You are what you put in your body; price should not matter. In Italy, you go to the store and you say I want this, this, and this and you pay. You don't-ta care what the price is. You just want the best because you want the best for your body." It was a really fun trip and he gave us all a loaf of bread when we left. The bread is amazingly good. His bakery has the reputation for being the cleanest in Sweden and so here is a picture of our class with hair nets and booties.