Saturday, April 03, 2010

Biography of a Taco

From factories and farms half a world away to that first cilantro-sprinkled bite, ingredients for a typical taco collectively travel 2.6 times the circumference of the earth to reach your local taco truck.

That’s the conclusion of a design and architecture class at California College of the Arts after months of research.

“It really reconfigures the idea of the Mission taco,” said Alison Sant, a founder of the Studio for Urban Projects, where she recently introduced a presentation by the class.

Taught by landscape architect David Fletcherand members of the design collaborative Rebar, the class set out to map the foodshed of a nearby taco truck, following each ingredient from conception to waste.