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Week 8 [28.11-04.12] - The future of food technology


Food is one of the basic needs of a healthy life, but some food technologies haven’t changed for centuries despite numerous issues. Recently there has been much news about projects and concepts meant to resolve these issues.

Technologies

Below is an overview of a few projects in food science.

Lab-grown food

The whole world can’t go vegan, but you may agree that growing and slaughtering living creatures for nutrition in the 21st century just feels wrong. Recent studies show that it’s possible to grow meat in cell culture instead of inside animals, so basically meat can be grown in the same way as plants. There’re many companies working on growing cultured meat, the first impressive result was achieved by Dr. Mark Post.  In 2013 he successfully grew meat in Maastricht University lab, then made a burger from it and publicly ate it.

Lab-grown meat (source: http://gizmodo.com/the-future-will-be-full-of-lab-grown-meat-1720874704)

The other basic products that can already be grown in a lab are eggs and milk. According to recent discoveries and studies, lab-grown milk and eggs could hit store shelves in 5 years.

Lab-grown milk (source: http://modernfarmer.com/2014/12/coming-soon-3-vegan-scientists-lab-grown-milk/)

All-in-one nutrition

Some people don’t have enough time for cooking or just hate cooking. There’re a few projects that may help these people, they offer ready-to-drink meals that contain all essential nutrients. The most famous among them is Soylent, they state that their drink contains all required nutrients and it’s healthier than eating convenience food. Recently, nevertheless,  they have reported health issues from customers which they need to investigate.

All-in-one drinks (source: http://futurism.com/soylent-2-0-taste-test-could-you-drink-this-every-day/)

Vertical farming

This one is not meant to change the food itself but its way of production. The main issues of today’s farming include lack of availability of agricultural land, lack of fresh water and complex growing process that basically hasn’t changed for ages. Vertical farms are to resolve these issues, especially in big cities where land is too expensive. AeroFarms claims that it was able to create a vertical farm that uses no soil and 95% less water.

AeroFarms racks (source: http://aerofarms.com/our-farms/)

Conclusion

Science and technology is about to change the food industry, hopefully resolving global challenges like world hunger and lack of fresh water. At the same time I think that food technology is not fully researched; therefore, we should be careful using it.

What do you think about these technologies?
Would you eat naturally produced or lab-grown food?
Do you think that growing plants in vertical farms can affect taste?

References


Comments

Sylwia Pechcin said…
Let's sum up your article: in your opinion it would be great start eating lab-grown meat and lab-grown milk or eggs.
When I think about lab, the only think that comes to my mind is chemistry. As all people know, the chemistry isn't somethink that we would like provide to our organisms.
Secondly: people for ages have been growing cows or chickens in order to get food. No matter is it producement of milk, eggs or meat - theese animals have been breeded for that reason in ages and I don't think that it's a fact that we have to change.
Personally I am not going to eat any lab-grown food, because it sounds disqusting for me.
I am almost sure that plants grown in vertical farms have different taste than the natural ones. They are fake and nothing can change it.
Unknown said…
Of course that better to eat natural products. Of these articles what you wrote in the presentation will be made on the same chemistry. In China can buy powdered eggs! This is very stupid... In a few years we will not need chicken that to have eggs and we will not need for example pig that to have meat...
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
The article itself doesn't state that it's great, it's just an overview of a few food technology trends. Although I think that if these scientists succeed in growing meat that looks and tastes like the natural one, is healthy based on numerous studies then it seems to be better than growing a huge living creatures like cows, I mean both economically and ethically.

If people has been doing something for ages it doesn't mean that it shouldn't be changed, some time ago we used to live in caves:)
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Sure, currently it's better and easier, but if you can't tell the difference between two rib eye steaks made naturally and in a lab then what's the point in selecting the natural one? I mean if the lab grown one was totally healthy, cheaper and easier to produce.
Unknown said…
In my opinion it is much better to eat food that is naturally grown, I just don't trust anything that is modified by humans. I know that scientists tries their best to improve food itself or to produce some artificial food that will be theoretically providing all the microelements that we need. But it is not always as they think it is. I still think that the best for us is what had grown itself, as much naturally as possible.
Unknown said…
I prefer eating natural grown products. The problem of artificial food is we don't know how it will affect our health in
further future. Even now we heard that the people used to live longer, and there wasn't so many diseases. In the other hand the lab grown food is much cheaper so merchant will be found.
Piotr Basiński said…
In my opinion lab-grown food is an awesome idea. It's just wonderful that people are able to grow meat in glass vessels. This technology could solve the problem of cruelty treatment of animals. People kills animals for meat, it's would be great if this proceder could be stopped.
I would eat lab-grown food if it had been well tested and scientifically proven that it is harmless for health.
In my point of view plants in vertical farms can be tasty. If this technology will be develop as far as it will become better than natural, everyone will be happy.
Unknown said…
That lab-grown meat is totally disgusting! It sounds so terrible I won't even finish my sandwich. Gosh, I can't think about it, it's like some bacteria or a worm which can proliferate... Actually, I'm not going to eat meat meal tomorrow.
I was also surprised to hear they could grow eggs and milk in a lab, although that's not so bad in my taste, but I'm not sure if I'd like to try it.

How does vertical farm works actually?

Unknown said…
I would not mind food from lab, but only if I would now long term effects on people. Nowadays GMO is enforced everywhere, yet we are not sure what consquences it might bring.
I'm rather conservative when it comes to human nutrition. I definitely prefer natural food over lab-grown one simply because the latter hasn't been appropriately tested. I also believe that plants grown in vertical farms tastes worse than those grown the traditional way.
By the way, if I remember well - correct me if I'm wrong - this lab-grown burger you mentioned costed over $300.000.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
That's true, currently it looks unnatural, but there's a possibility that lab-grown meat will have the same structure and taste as the naturally produced meat.

I'm not a scientist, but based on the articles I've read they work in the same way as regular farms, but there're racks instead of plains, also there's an artificial light and some nutritive liquid instead of the soil.
Unknown said…
hmm that's interesting...
I don't know what to think cause they eliminated two the most important factors in a cultivation: sun and water. That's why I don't believe it could be healthy like the tradicionally grown food is.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Yes, it costed the insane amount of money, but this was the cost of research - mass production is a bit different thing.

Would you prefer lab-grown food if it was fully tested? Of course if it looked the same and tasted the same.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Thanks, that's a very optimistic point of view:)
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Not water, but soil - it's easier to use a nutritive liquid. I agree, currently it's not healthy at all and looks strange, but sooner or later these scientists may succeed.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Sure, it's effect on health should be fully tested first. I guess we will witness "Not grown in lab" stickers on products similar to nowadays "Without GMO" stickers:)
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
The first lab-grown meat sample costed around $300,000 so it's not cheap yet, but you're right - as soon as it becomes cheaper than naturally grown meat it may hit the shelves even if it's not fully tested.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
I agree, but don't you think there should be some balance? For example geese hunted in the wild are more "natural" than geese grown on the modern farms using some artificial nutrition, so nowadays meat is not truly natural too.
Dajana Kubica said…
I think it's a great idea. This will significantly reduce world hunger and killing of animals. I think if the production costs of such meat will decrease, it can eliminate the slaughterhouses. I never ate food from laboratory, but if the taste and the ingredients were good, I could go on a diet straight from the lab. Vertical farms would differently produce food, so their taste may change. Perhaps for the better :)
Unknown said…
It depends some ingredients add to our food is good some other is bad. In this century every single food is modificated by added special chemical ingredients (i guess except water). Time life of human is rising so i guess its good idea to modify this food and try to create more soft and healty food. Nowadays everyone eat modify food and we cant do much to stop it
Unknown said…
I prefer the normal grown food. We never know how something is genetically modified will be impact for us and I don't like ivention as soylent because personally I love to eat and I can't imagine I could replace the normal food for some liquid or powder. I think we should live in harmony with nature and the food grown in the laboratory doesn't have anything to do with it. I think for this type of inventions hidden desire to make money by corporations rather than the good of the human.
kondrat said…
Lab grown food is not a big deal for me. I think, that optimizing food is necessary for humanity to survive without reducing its population. Vertical farming is great thing for limited growing areas, and also can be easily automated (like watering plants).
I have never heard about lab-grown food. Sounds cool. I guess it would solve world hunger problem once for all. I'm very curious what it tastes like? Does it taste like a regular food? Is it healthy?
Michał Pycek said…
In my opinion it is a positive side of the science and technology development and it is also natural for people of science to look for new possibilities which could be used globally. On the other hand, I would prefer to stick with the natural ways of retrieving food, instead of the lab based solutions which are far from natural. I believe that when it comes to food, the most healthy and natural thing is to just eat what grows outside in our gardens or lives in ecofarms and regular land-households.
Unknown said…
I didn't know much about food technologies. I think that they are important and I hope that they will solve some of the world problems. It's great that there is so many ways of using technology and that some uses of it may help people.
Unknown said…
Lab-grown food is really interesting. The idea of making meat without killing animals can have a huge impact on our society. I’m sure that with time the cost of producing such a meet will decrease and it can really solve the problem of hunger in the world.

If lab-grown food is healthy and has such benefits as natural meet - I’d choose lab-grown food. I really love meet and I love animals… But I love to meet more than animals.
Unknown said…
I don't see anything bad in the artificial food if it doesn't harm people. Personally, I like to taste great food, but ain't a big fan of cooking. I would like to have some kind of Soylent instead of cooking a meal everyday for a work. It's my dream to have some kind of food everyday which will saturate me and give me a lot of energy. The real meat, milk and other products I would like to leave for the weekend when we have more tome to cook something special and delicious.
Andrzej Gulak said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
As long as lab-grown food won't replace natural food I'm okay with it. I wouldn't be happy if I was forced to eat lab meat or milk.
It would be cool if it actually solved world hunger though.
Unknown said…
Actually, traditionally "raised" meat can be also full of chemicals. You have to put a lot of vaccines and drugs in animal so it won't get sick. Animals are being kept in huge numbers in small places (often dirty) so any sickness can spread immediately. Since the more meat you sell, the more money you make animals are often fed special fodder (with chemicals) that makes them grow faster. Apart from this aspect no one cares if the nutrition is proper since the animal will end up being dead anyway. I'm skipping the whole ethical aspect of this solution.

Growing meat in labs we can monitor the environment better, prevent it from having some sickness. There would be no use for drugs and chemicals used right now in farms. Additionally I'm sure that growing meat in lab would use less space.

I highly doubt if eating lab raised meat would be less healthy than eating farm raised one.
I think that it’s a very interesting topic. I think that these technologies might be only way to deal with overpopulation and growing food demand. I wouldn’t mind eating lab grown meat, I think it would be safer to eat than traditional food. There is no way that lab grown meat can have parasites such as Trichinella spiralis or some kind of tapeworm in it.
Lab meat is something completely disgusting for me and I wouldn't dare trying to eat it. I don't believe in All-in-one nutrition. All people are different and need different kind of nutritions depending on age, sex and personal lifestyle. But Vertical farming looks quite promising - I would like to see it in action someday.
That's true, but it still sounds funny for me. Anyway, I've also read that some time ago they reduced cost of production to approx. $10.

I think I would, but the question is when can it be considered fully tested.
Jarek_Ziem said…
What do you think about these technologies?
It the future for mankind. With not sufficient agricultural areas in the world and with rising pollution of existing it’s the only reasonable way of developing our nurturing needs. GMO it’s not the thereat, it’s opportunity. All-in-one nutrition has huge “hype” in Silicon Valley because of many people who work all-days in front of the computers and where building business is a constant race against the time and furious competition.

Would you eat naturally produced or lab-grown food?
Of course, there is many scientific publications that it’s not affecting human being in harmful way and it will probably be cheaper than organic food.

Do you think that growing plants in vertical farms can affect taste?
Not if there will be high quality air conditioning and if the fertilizers will be all natural. But if we want it to be cost effective we cannot build it in city centers and urban areas, more in our suburbs.
Unknown said…
Sorry, guys, but I guess that the food we eat today is mostly not natural. But sometimes we don't even know about it - the producers hide this information from us. Antibiotics in the meat, chemicals in vegetables and fruits, etc. When I think about it in the grocery store I'm stuck, because no idea what to buy to eat healthy. And this "eco-bio-healthy" products are quite expensive and are not for everyone to afford it. I know that some family with small kids go to the villages to find people whom they pay for growing hens and cows. So they can get the eco-products for their children.

Never say never, the world is changing everyday. When this technological food will become avai;able, maybe we should try it. In this case it will be official lab products.
Moode said…
I think that the food made in traditional ways is much better and heathier than the one produced in closed or technical environment. I also believe that it has a better taste. You can see it if eating for example tomatoes which grown in ground with the sun shining on it or tomatoes that were grown in the green house. The first ones are always very juicy and sweet. For me we should try to find some more ways to make food as natural as possible.
Bartosz Łyżwa said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bartosz Łyżwa said…
In my opinion it's great to research new technologies like those because but I don't think so it could be substitute of natural food. I eager to try this food from the first part of your article. It's interesting how does it taste but definitley I would like to eat "natural" food rather than laboratory invention.
Unknown said…
I think it is very important to come up with some alternative ideas how to get food because soon it may be harder to do that. So it is great that people are inventing new technologies connected with proucing food. Of course it is not the same to eat substitutes but it is good that we have some other possibilities to get food.
I like cooking and eating :D it relaxes me (cooking).
I like to try new things so this technologies don't seem like for me :P
It is of course good to develop and research new technologies but I think it isn't for me
KamilG said…
Great article! For me these technologies are awesome, but there are some concerns. We don't have guarantee that these things will be health for people. I'm afraid about new diseases which might be hard to cure. For sure using lab-grown food technology could help poor animals. Now in some abattoirs animals are killed barbarically. I think this innovation can stop this disrespectful treating animals, because people won't kill them to have a meat.
I'm always happy to see how science progresses, and I'm definitely happy to see such efforts happening, as if it's not for me, then at least it can help with problem of hunger on our planet, which is only going to get worse as more and more people will be born on this already overpopulated world.

I'd probably be up for eating such food if it tastes good or at least not as bad as I think it does. Vertical farms most likely do affect the overall taste, as nearly everything does, question is how much.
Unknown said…
Unless meat production will become seriously dangerous to mankind (somehow) it will never stop. People simply like it, its taste, smell, density or whatever. If it wasn't for that, we would cease with its production long ago, replacing it with those bland surrogates, which you are served if you ever visit a vegan bar.
Adam Nowak said…
I'm certain that regular ways of creating food will stay with us for a long time. It is just much cheaper to breed a cattle rather than growing an animal tissue in a laboratory. Murdering animals for their meat is not neccesary a bad thing i beleive, it is not bad only if they have a proper conditions to life.
We can only hope that the future of food technology means ending world hunger and not taking control of people by powerful companies. And I'm all for eating food grown in a lab as long as it tastes good. Not needing to hurt any animals in the process would be ideal.
Unknown said…
I never thought that milk and eggs synthesized in a lab are something we could see on our store shelves as soon as in 5 years. I'd love to see it happen as I want to stop using "natural" eggs and milk (because of horrible conditions of animal breeding we have today) but at the same time it's hard for me to go full vegan. I definitely would like to learn as much as possible about the new type of food, but the idea behind it is ok with me. I also like the idea of "synthetic meat".
However while there was a time when I thought it's something I'd look forward to, I don't think I miss it that much anymore.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Currently it is, but some time ago it was even easier to go out hunting instead of waiting for a few years for making a steak. Growing human population may require some simple and cheap food production technologies.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
You're right - currently it's a mess, but these scientists may succeed and reproduce the real meat density, structure etc. so it will look and taste in the same way. Then it's a matter of time and production cost.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
I can't say for sure because I haven't tried it, but there's another article entitled "Unsurprisingly, the $300k lab-grown burger tastes horrible" so I guess it's not tasty at the current stage:)
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
I agree with you, 24/7 "all in one" diet is a bad idea, but sometimes if you don't have time/mood for cooking it seems to be a perfect solution.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
I'm sure there will always be some "natural" markets like "eco food" markets nowadays, for people who don't trust the supermarket fruits and vegetables.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Thanks for an interesting insight. I guess 99% of the nowadays meat is already produced with some kind of technology/chemicals, it would be really expensive to produce it naturally.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
That's a good point! I guess the only way to be confident in nowadays food ingredients you have to grow them yourself:)
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
It's hard to prevent the emergence of corporations and it's not always bad - small company with an awesome idea/technology naturally grows into a corporation, for example Google started by a few students.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
I like to try new things too, but I hate cooking. I hope that they will be able to produce something tasty, at least for everyday food like meat or eggs. This would resolve many issues, while other products (as well as natural meat) will not be forbidden anyway.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
I'm in the same boat, it would be great to forget about cooking when you're busy. I considered trying Soylent, but it's not fully tested yet.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Currently almost everything you can buy in a supermarket is produced with some technology/chemicals, completely natural food would be really expensive. So these technologies are just like another step further.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Thanks! That seems to be the main issue - the current production process it's not just too complex, it's ethically unacceptable.
Ihor Ahnianikov said…
Yes, and at this point it also may be a deal-breaker for vegetarians, they can finally eat meat:) That's just strange because currently vegetarians are "people who don't eat meat".

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