On Monday 5 August, a global news conference came over all Masterchef as the the world’s first lab-grown burger was cooked and eaten in front of the world’s press. Dutch scientists had taken cells from a cow, then turned them into strips of muscle which they combined to make a patty. Yum. Apparently it tasted OK but needed ketchup.
If artificially engineered food leaves you cold, insects are increasingly being considered as a viable – and indeed essential – food stuff. The UN is pushing etnomophagy (the practise of eating insects) as a possible route to easing the growing global food crisis. Michelin starred restaurant Aphrodite in Nice has recently launched an Alternative Food tasting menu, an intrepid five-course culinary adventure. Industrial design graduate Katherina Unger has just unveiled Farm 432, a table-top insect breeding farm which allows people to grow edible fly larvae in the comfort of their own homes.
And closer to home, there’s a growing movement towards all things urban/ home-grown/ rustic. This Guardian article references some of the innovations happening in London alone – “artisan bakeries under Hackney railway arches, Rastafarian beekeepers in Wanstead and soya producers trading just off Brick Lane.” Indeed, we believe that increasingly consumers will expect to know exactly where ALL the food they consume originates.
So why the focus on all things foodie? Obviously growing fears over fast growing global population (an extra 2.5bn people will be joining us on Earth by 2050) + deforestation + pollution are creating a real need for food that’s cheap, sustainable, easily manufactured and doesn’t put additional strain on the world’s resources. Insects are an obvious choice – they’re cheap, abundant (as anyone who has ever attempted a walk in the Scottish highlands in summer will confirm), packed with protein and have a low environmental footprint. They’re also pretty sure to fill the average Westerner with angst, disgust and fear – for now at least.
From a regulatory standpoint, obesity and the impact of poor nutrition on health are core factors in a growing focus on how and what we eat – by 2030 for example, the International Diabetes Federation predict that 66m Europeans (8%) and 101m SE Asians (9%) will suffer from diabetes. By 2020, nearly 30% of UK adults are forecast to be obese (nVision/ Health Survey for England, Department of Health).
There are many other trends wrapped up in this increasing focus on food – War on Waste, Consuming With Ethics, Maximising, The Good Company, Assault on Pleasure, Local Preference. In future, we believe the need for transparency will grow – better nutritional labelling, more advice from brands on healthy options, perhaps even self-monitoring technology which alerts users to calorie consumption or the need to offset that donut with a run.
What is clear though is that we’re on the brink of major change. In the words of author and food activist Michael Pollan, the future of food is likely to be geared around the ethos “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
What do you think? What does the future of food look like from your perspective? The Future Foundation report Beyond 2020: Future of Food and all referenced trends are available to nVision users – for sample content, contact Karen Canty karenc@futurefoundation.net
