Supermarket shelves groaning with food are a symbol of our age of overproduction and over-consumption argues Francesca Sarti of Arabeschi di Latte in her Dezeen 15 manifesto. Instead, she asks, how can rationing become poetic"
Sarti's manifesto, called The Beauty of Scarcity, includes a proposal for a micro-retailing system that points the way to an "alternative hedonism" that celebrates frugality and parsimony.
The idea is Sarti's contribution to Dezeen 15, a digital festival celebrating Dezeen's 15th birthday that invited 15 contributors to outline ideas that can change the world in the next 15 years.

Top: keywords from Sarti's manifesto presented on a table plan. Above: Sarti proposes five kiosks demonstrating different approaches to scarcity including the Poetic Kakery (left) serving  Photos by Chiara Dolma I have chosen joy to impact different aspects of daily life: from using disposable plastic bottles to recovering the pleasure of preparing food by hand or reconnecting with nature.
At this moment I think the most urgent change of perspective needed is in our relationship with prosperity and its counterpart: scarcity.
We are too addicted to the "beauty of abundance"
In a way, scarcity is the inevitable gloomy result of our behaviours. Simultaneously it is the solution. Most of the environmental issues related to food are due to exaggeration, excess, overproduction and over-consumerism. To put it simply, they are problems of quantity.
We real...