Australia Prepare, The Food Revolution is Coming, and Everyone Eats
Like Apples? Commercial apples are picked, waxed, and added to a chamber where the CO2 and O2 are drawn down so low they basically freeze. When finally shipped and eaten, (14 months later) the antioxidants are gone, and all that is left is sugar and fiber. Source MIT/Target — writes Laura Stec.
About a year ago I started studying more about nutrition, the food industry and its impact on…everything. I was disappointed. I’m not a food scientist, nutritionist and not even a great chef yet, my background is civil engineering and software. I’ve been organising technology events for the past seven years in almost every country that has a tech sector. The Future of Health has always been one of the main themes in all those events. I thought the food is just part of the big health topic until I realised it deserves it’s own place — so at Myriad 2018 we are going to explore the Future Of Food as one of the main themes.
We would love to hear your thoughts and comments — who are the innovators in this space?
I’m genuinely excited that a lot of knowledgeable people are excited about the future of food. Late last year, I was delighted to invite my dear friend Steve Jurvetson to Helsinki during Slush where he met Uma Valeti, the CEO of Memphis Meats. The rest you can read on Steves blog post here — Excited for the Future of Meat
Just to get a quick idea what’s happening, google “The Future Of Food” — I’ve done this and highlighted some of the major issues, but also the opportunities to improve.
The Nation writes:
We are at a crossroads in the food system, and the direction we choose to take will have ripple effects far into the future. Do we want our food produced with risky, unregulated, patented, genetically engineered fungi or algae, fed with environmentally destructive feedstocks like GMO corn, and controlled by a handful of mega-corporations? Instead of investing in potential problems masquerading as solutions, shouldn’t we invest in the transparent, organic, humane, and socially just production of real food in a way that benefits farmers, food-chain workers, consumers, animals, and the environment? (The Nation)
My comment: I believe the Real Food movement is a real thing, and one of the guys who has declared a war against the Not-Real Food is Kimbal Musk. Here’s a little anecdote:
Kimbal tells his brother Elon that he is declaring a war against the food industry; Elon replies hey bro you’re crazy to get into this business..; Kimbal says..akhem..Space
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To say that the future of food will be high-tech tells us little about the values of the food system we’re building for future generations. Will targeted genome-editing tools like CRISPR lead to hardier, more nutritious plants, or will they enrich agrochemical corporations at the expense of farmers and the environment? Consider the food-tech start-up Juicero, maker of a $400 machine to cold-press fresh produce packets available by delivery — an idea that greatly excited investors, until someone discovered that you could simply squeeze the packets by hand. In the dystopian future foreshadowed by Juicero, the wealthy will pay, via one-click ordering, for expensive and unnecessary gadgets to prepare and deliver their food, while those without money will eat… cake? (The Nation)
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It’s a time of deep uncertainty at every link in the global food chain. For the first time in a decade, the number of hungry and malnourished people in the world is rising. Climate change threatens breadbasket regions the world over. Nestlé and other multinational food companies peddle processed foods deeper into remote areas of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, igniting debate about whether they’re feeding hungry communities or making them sick; globally, deaths from diet-related illnesses are rising. The malnutrition of the future, as predicted by a recent New York Times report, is to be “both overweight and undernourished.” (The Nation)
Radio New Zealand writes:
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Plant and Food Research chief operating officer Bruce Campbell said the message from the US was clear. “There’s quite significant disruption coming for the food sector. “In fact one of the interesting predictions was that eight of the 10 biggest food and agricultural companies could disappear in the next decade because of the pace of change and the pace of innovation.” (Radio NZ)
Dr Campbell said there was a lot of new technology from Silicon Valley and Europe that was going to change the game for food production in the future. “Not the least of those is a big change to towards plant-based foods and people wanting much more diversity in their diets — I think that creates a big opportunity for horticulture in New Zealand.” (Radio NZ)
My comment: Australia Prepare!
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Dr Campbell said there were a number of opportunities for other food businesses to get more out of the global market, and while it was easy to say that New Zealand was small and insignificant, this country still had a world-class reputation. “It’s a real opportunity for us to build on. The future will require us to be much more connected internationally. “There will be much more of a global innovation system and we’ve been exploring much stronger connections with the likes of Silicon Valley, the food valley in the Netherlands … as examples to position New Zealand for the real premium end of the food market where we can do best.” (Radio NZ)
My comment: Again same for Australia, really good opportunity to position Australia for the premium end of the food market
Quartz writes:
Africa is a farm lover’s dream: abundant uncultivated arable land, roughly over half the global total; tropical climates that permit long growing seasons; a young labor force; and an expanding population that provides a readily available market for produce consumption. (Quartz)
My comment: Australia must be also a farm lovers dream, for the same reasons, adding a world-class food science
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Some of these youngsters are also discouraged by the difficulties of accessing funds or land, the reliance on manual technology in smallholder agriculture, all compounded by the low and volatile profits. But to remedy these issues, a new report suggests governments should change their outlook on agriculture from a subsistence, daily activity into a commercial enterprise. The African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) says focusing on the entire value chain of the process — land tenure, farming technology, markets, and pricing — would help transform food systems around the continent. Positioning farming “as a business and entrepreneurial endeavor” would also help draw younger people into the practice, and make them see it as less of a “cool” idea and more as a “career option.” Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, a commercial farmer himself, told Quartz in an interview last month that he sees agribusiness as one of the few sectors that can “create the quantum of jobs needed for Africa’s youth.” (Quartz)
The Australian writes:
Within a decade, your cheeseburger could have been grown in a lab. Some might argue that this new ‘‘meat’’ would be more humane, with the cells having been taken from an animal biopsy, but I’m still not sure it would appeal to my vegetarian sister. (The Australian)
What it will do is create a greater capacity to feed more people than is currently possible with traditional methods. It’s the reason agricultural giant Cargill, Bill Gates and Richard Branson recently invested over $20 million into Memphis Meats, a Silicon Valley start-up focused on “in-vitro” or “cell-cultured” meat production. (The Australian)
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Right now, food travels a long way to get from a farm to your table. In the US, the average plate of food travels almost 2500km to get there. It’s likely a similar situation in Australia, meaning your food is travelling the equivalent of Adelaide to Perth just so you can fill your stomach. (The Australian)
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Urban farming is quickly moving from niche to mainstream as the technology to grow food in very small spaces continues to improve. Companies like Sprout Stack have perfected the art of growing produce in shipping containers, yielding as much as a hectare of land can in just eight weeks. (The Australian)
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As more dramatic changes occur with laboratory-produced food it will increase the demand for industrial property. And if the majority of meat is produced in a shed, far less farming land will be required. And while lab-grown food may seem a long way away, the costs have been declining quickly, enough to suggest that within a decade, it could become a regular feature of our diet. (The Australian)
Future foods may well reduce the land needed to produce our foods, but it doesn’t spell the end of the Aussie farmer. Some products are suitable for urban farming, but many aren’t and not everything can be grown easily in a lab. Crops, for example, will still require a lot of land and a traditional farm for some time to come. (The Australian)
Bon appetit! Some food for thought..
Martin
P.S. I personally believe in optimised diet. The science nowadays allows to understand our bodies, gut, cells, tissue and all that stuff pretty well, to know whats missing in the diet.
Last but not least, I believe a lot of wealth has been created with the expense of health, i.e. not eating well just because you know…too busy making money. I hope more of that wealth will be re-invested in great food companies.
